Gold and silver were falling Monday morning as over the terms of a second release of bailout funding threatens to delay agreements not only for a second round of bailouts, but the establishment of a permanent emergency “firewall” fund to replace the European Financial Stability Facility. Eurozone leaders continue to push for EU oversight of Greek budget decisions — a proposal Greece continues to reject.
Spot gold was nearly 0.3% lower, bid at $1,732.50 per ounce with an ask price of $1,733.50. Spot gold traded as high as $1,733.80 and as low as $1,722.70. The London afternoon reference price fix came in at $1,729, $3 per ounce higher than Friday’s reference price, according to .
Spot silver was showing a loss of nearly 1.2%, bid at $33.59 per ounce with an ask price of $33.69. The morning high as of time of writing was $33.73 and the low was $33.10. Monday’s reference price was set at $33.18 in the London a.m., 30 cents an ounce below Friday’s reference price.
In the U.S., the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis that December personal income increased $61.3 billion (0.5%), slightly higher than consensus expectations. Disposable personal income increased $47.1 billion (0.4%) in December, in line with expectations. On the flip side of consumers’ balance sheets, personal consumption expenditures fell $2.0 billion (less than 0.1%).
Gold bullion rose to $1,728 per ounce Monday morning in London, down slightly from last Friday’s close, according to BullionVault’s . Chinese buyers were snapping up physical gold during the week-ling Lunar New Year holiday, according to a China Daily report.
“People seem crazy about gold, snatching it up more like a cheap cabbage than such a precious metal,” the paper quoted a Beijing resident.
The value of sales at two of Beijing’s top gold retailers, Caibai and Guohua, reportedly hit 600 million Yuan ($95.28 million) — a 49.7% rise on last year’s sales. The gold price in dollars meantime rose around 25% during the same period.
Turning to U.S. exchange trading, gold and silver trusts were moving lower.
- The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:) was down about 0.3%.
- The iShares Gold Trust (NYSE:) was showing losses of around 0.35%.
- The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:) was moving lower, down nearly 0.8%.
Gold and silver mining ETFs were showing losses as well.
- The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:) was down around 0.9%.
- The Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:) was down some 1.3%.
- The Global X Silver Miners ETF (NYSE:) was about 0.85% lower.
Gold mining shares were were heading south, with Agnico-Eagle Mines (NYSE:
) taking the biggest hit so far Monday morning.
- Agnico-Eagle Mines was showing losses approaching 3%.
- Barrick Gold (NYSE:) was down nearly 0.5%.
- Eldorado Gold (NYSE:) was down more than 1.5%.
- Goldcorp (NYSE:) was down between 1.2% and 1.3%.
- Kinross Gold (NYSE:) was showing losses of more than 2%.
- Newmont Mining (NYSE:) was down more than 0.2%.
- NovaGold Resources (AMEX:) was showing losses of around 1.3%.
- Yamana Gold (NYSE:) was unchanged.
Silver mining shares were broadly lower, though Hecla Mining (NYSE:) and Silver Standard Resources (NASDAQ:) were bucking the morning trend.
- Coeur d’Alene Mines (NYSE:) was moving lower, down around 0.45%.
- Hecla Mining was up some 0.2%.
- Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:) was moving between slight gains and losses of around 0.15%.
- Silver Wheaton (NYSE:) was showing losses of some 0.2%.
- Silver Standard Resources was moving higher, up around 1.35%.
As of this writing, Andrew Burger did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Adrian Ash of contributed to this report.
