Gold and copper post mild gains after upbeat China trade figures
Published Dec 07, 2016 11:50PM ET
Gold and copper up after China tarde
Investing.com - Gold prices gained slightly in Asia on Thursday after upbeat trade data from China supported demand hopes, though copper remained only slightly higher despite an impressive jump in imports in November.
Gold futures for February on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 0.11% to $1,178.85 a troy ounce.
Elsewhere in precious metals trading, silver futures for March delivery dropped 0.22% to $17.237 a troy ounce, while copper futures for March delivery edged up 0.04% to $2.648 a pound.
China reported its trade balance for November as a surplus of $44.61 billion, compared with a surplus of $46.30 billion seen and exports posted a slight increase of 0.1%, well above the decline of 5.0% expected, while imports jumped 6.7%, well above 1.3% fall seen.
The figures showed copper imports surged 31% in November from the previous month to 380,000 tonnes, the highest since June on construction demand.
Overnight, gold prices edged higher on Wednesday, but gains looked likely to remain limited as expectations for an interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve next week weighed on the precious metal.
Gold remained under pressure ahead of an expected interest rate hike by the U.S. central bank at its Dec. 13-14 meeting with a stronger dollar also hitting sentiment as the precious metal is priced in greenbacks.
Data on Tuesday showing that U.S. factory orders rose at the fastest rate in almost one-and-a-half years in October added to signs that the manufacturing sector is recovering and fed into expectations for a rate hike.
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Written By: Investing.com
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