Gold and silver were moving higher for a second consecutive morning Tuesday amid a mixed report on U.S. consumer confidence, a fall in home prices and positive results of Spanish and Italian treasury auctions. Spot gold was slightly higher, up 0.05% as of 10:30 a.m., having traded as high as $1,698.50 and as low as $1,685 an ounce, according to Kitco market data. The London afternoon reference price was set at $1,692, $11.75 an ounce higher than Monday’s morning reference price.
Spot silver was showing a 0.4% gain, bid at $32.97, with an ask price of $33.07. The morning high as of time of writing was $33.23 and the low was $32.70. Tuesday’s reference price was set at $33.01 in the London a.m., 78 cents an ounce above Monday’s reference price.
U.S. home prices declined 3.9% and 3.8% in the last year through January 2012 for S&P/Case-Shiller’s 10- and 20-City Composite Home Price Indexes, respectively. Both indexes declined 0.8% during January.
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index pulled back slightly, to 70.2, in March, though it remains near a one-year high following a February increase to 71.6. The Present Situation Index increased to 51.0 from 46.4, while the Expectations Index fell to 83.0 from 88.4 in February.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments yesterday, along with weaker pending home sales, has lead to a weakening U.S. dollar, Reuters reported. The greenback fell to its lowest level in four weeks against a basket of major currencies. As a rule, a falling dollar supports higher precious metals, oil and commodities prices.
Demand was strong for both Spanish and Italian Treasury debt securities’ auctions today, though Spanish and Italian yields rose, reflecting changing assessments of the countries’ respective fiscal health and outlook, according to a WSJ report.
Gold bullion prices hovered just below $1,700 an ounce in London morning trading Tuesday, up over 4% this week so far before slipping ahead of the U.S. markets open, according to BullionVault’s London Gold Market report.
“Bernanke was back on solidly dovish ground again,” according to Standard Bank currency analysts Steve Barrow and Jeremy Stevens. “Rightly or wrongly, the market seems to think his comments could imply another loosening of [policy] via some form of QE3,” they added, referring to the possibility of a third round of quantitative easing.
In U.S. stock exchange trading, gold and silver trusts were flat to lower.
The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD) was lower, down around 0.25%.
The iShares Gold Trust (NYSE:IAU) was down around 0.25%.
The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV) was unchanged.
Gold mining ETFs were showing losses, while the iShares Silver Trust was moving between gains and losses.
The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) was showing losses of around 0.4%.
The Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDXJ) was showing losses of more than 1%.
The Global X Silver Miners ETF (NYSE:SIL) was moving between gains and losses of -0.15% and +0.1%.
Gold mining shares were lower as well, Goldcorp being the exception.
Agnico-Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM) was showing losses of around 0.65%.
Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) was down around 0.8%.
Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO) was down around 0.6%.
Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) was around 0.3% higher.
Kinross Gold Corp. USA (NYSE:KGC) was down nearly 1.5%.
Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) was down more than 0.4%.
NovaGold Resources (NYSEAMEX:NG) was lower, down around 1.2%.
Yamana Gold (USA) (NYSE:AUY) was down around 0.25%.
Silver mining shares were mixed.
Coeur d’Alene Mines (NYSE:CDE) was showing losses of more than 0.5%.
Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) was up around 0.1%.
Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:PAAS) was showing losses of around 0.1%.
Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW) was up around 0.2%.
Silver Standard Resources (NASDAQ:SSRI) was down more than 0.1%.
As of this writing, Andrew Burger did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Adrian Ash of BullionVault contributed to this report.
