· Gold futures slipped marginally on Monday but closed out a solid July as the dollar headed for its fifth-straight monthly decline.
· December gold GCZ7, +0.10% which has become the most active contract, fell $1.90, or 0.1%, to settle at $1,273.40 an ounce. It earlier traded higher, touching $1,277.30, an intraday seven-week high. On a most-active basis, gold saw a roughly 2.5% gain in July, according to FactSet.
· August gold GCQ7, +0.04% declined $1.80, or 0.1%, to $1,266.60 an ounce. It settled Friday at $1,268.40, the highest since June 14, according to FactSet data.
· Gold prices have moved from slightly lower levels to steady to slightly up on news that Anthony Scaramucci has been fired as White House communications director. The turmoil among the White House staff is mildly supportive for safe-haven gold.
· The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, +0.07% reversed earlier gains to lose 0.3%. The DXY was on track for a 2.9% drop for July. The buck suffered last week after a Friday reading on U.S. second-quarter gross domestic product, while an improvement from a weak start to the year, still came in below expectations. The report added to concerns inflation will remain low and could keep the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates again later in 2017.
· “Gold had increased noticeably…despite what were in fact good U.S. economic data—the U.S. economy grew by 2.6% in the second quarter—because the figures also indicated declining inflation pressure. This reduces the pressure on the Federal Reserve to further hike interest rates in the near future,” said Carsten Fritsch, commodities analyst at Commerzbank.
Fritsch added that the recent rise in gold prices was driven mostly by speculation, citing two sets of data. Within Commodity Futures Trading Commission statistics, net speculative long positions were expanded from 28,900 to 73,600 contracts in the week to July 25. The increase in price after the reporting date suggests that further speculative net long positions have been built up in the meantime, he said. And, according to China Gold Association data, gold demand in China grew by 9.9% year-over-year to 545 tons in the first half of 2017.
· Technically, December gold futures prices closed near mid-range. The gold bulls have the overall near-term technical advantage. Prices are in a steep four-week-old uptrend on the daily bar chart. Gold bulls' next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at $1,300.00. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is pushing prices below solid technical support at $1,250.00. First resistance is seen at today’s high of $1,277.30 and then at $1,280.00. First support is seen at $1,270.00 and then at $1,263.20. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 6.5
· Among other metals, September silver SIU7, +0.14% rose around 9 cents, or 0.5%, to end at $16.70 an ounce, while front-month August SIQ7, +0.67% advanced 8.6 cents, or 0.5%, to $16.75 an ounce. On a most active basis, silver rose around 1.3% in July.
· The key U.S. economic report of the week will be Friday’s U.S. jobs report for July from the Labor Department. The non-farm payrolls number of that report is expected to be up 180,000.
Reference: Market Watch, Kitco
Thai
Eng