Rally for gold price came as investors turned more optimistic about Europe’s plan to recapitalize banks, said Tom Pawlicki, a metals analyst with MF Global in Chicago.
The hopes Europe will be able to keep its sovereign-debt woes under control grew as European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Wednesday outlined the plan.
Gold had tanked in recent weeks as the euro zone’s sovereign-debt concerns grew so intense investors dumped the metal to raise cash and make good on their bets in other investments.
Gold ended lower Tuesday as investors were sidelined ahead of a key vote about Europe’s bailout fund. After gold’s floor trading closed, Slovakia rejected a plan to enhance power of the fund, disrupting attempts to keep the crisis contained.
Another ray of hope for gold came from recent data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Data Friday showed fund managers have started to modestly move back to gold.
“(Money managers) are buying again,” and numbers, however modest, could foretell a shift in sentiment for gold, Pawlicki said.
CFTC data released late Friday showed managers’s net-long positions, or bets gold will go higher, increasing by more than 5,000. That was only the second increase of net longs in nine weeks, Pawlicki said.
Amid the recent volatility in gold, fund managers liquidated more than 100,000 net-long positions, so the increase is “a drop in a bucket” but a step in the right direction, he added.
Other metals tracked gold higher, with December silver SI1Z +2.41% rising 71 cents, or 2.2%, to $32.71 an ounce. Copper for the same month’s delivery HG1Z +3.01% rose 11 cents, or 3.3%, to $3.40 a pound.
Meanwhile, the dollar index DXY -0.88% , which compares the greenback against a basket of six currencies, fell to 76.951 from 77.549 late Tuesday.
A lower dollar generally helps gold and other commodities as it lowers their price for holders of other currencies, broadening their investment appeal.
Gold for December delivery GC1Z +1.20% added $20.50, or 1.2%, to $1,681.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It had earlier traded as high as $1,693.90 an ounce and as low as $1,662 an ounce.
The hopes Europe will be able to keep its sovereign-debt woes under control grew as European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Wednesday outlined the plan.
Gold had tanked in recent weeks as the euro zone’s sovereign-debt concerns grew so intense investors dumped the metal to raise cash and make good on their bets in other investments.
Gold ended lower Tuesday as investors were sidelined ahead of a key vote about Europe’s bailout fund. After gold’s floor trading closed, Slovakia rejected a plan to enhance power of the fund, disrupting attempts to keep the crisis contained.
Another ray of hope for gold came from recent data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Data Friday showed fund managers have started to modestly move back to gold.
“(Money managers) are buying again,” and numbers, however modest, could foretell a shift in sentiment for gold, Pawlicki said.
CFTC data released late Friday showed managers’s net-long positions, or bets gold will go higher, increasing by more than 5,000. That was only the second increase of net longs in nine weeks, Pawlicki said.
Amid the recent volatility in gold, fund managers liquidated more than 100,000 net-long positions, so the increase is “a drop in a bucket” but a step in the right direction, he added.
Other metals tracked gold higher, with December silver SI1Z +2.41% rising 71 cents, or 2.2%, to $32.71 an ounce. Copper for the same month’s delivery HG1Z +3.01% rose 11 cents, or 3.3%, to $3.40 a pound.
Meanwhile, the dollar index DXY -0.88% , which compares the greenback against a basket of six currencies, fell to 76.951 from 77.549 late Tuesday.
A lower dollar generally helps gold and other commodities as it lowers their price for holders of other currencies, broadening their investment appeal.
Gold for December delivery GC1Z +1.20% added $20.50, or 1.2%, to $1,681.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It had earlier traded as high as $1,693.90 an ounce and as low as $1,662 an ounce.
Soybeans for November delivery gained 0.5 percent to $13.45 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 2:04 p.m. in Singapore, erasing an earlier 0.5 percent decline. The oilseed climbed 0.2 percent yesterday, halting a six-session decline.
Corn for December delivery gained 0.3 percent to $6.92 a bushel, after declining as much as 0.6 percent. Corn is the largest U.S. crop, valued at $66.7 billion in 2010, followed by soybeans at $38.9 billion, USDA data show.
Wheat for December delivery rose as much as 0.6 percent to $6.79 a bushel before trading at $6.775. Prices have slumped 14 percent this month. Corn, soybeans and wheat advanced on speculation that unfavorable weather in growing areas in the U.S., the biggest exporter, may hurt crop yields.
“Given the heavy sell-off we’ve seen even over the past week, you’ve got to start thinking that prices are looking a little over-sold at the moment and could potentially be susceptible to a rebound,” Victor Thianpiriya, an agricultural commodity analyst at Australia & New Zealand Group Ltd., said by phone from Melbourne today. “Crop conditions haven’t been good either, so that’s also price supportive.”
Rain and cool conditions may be unfavorable for corn and soybean crops in parts of the U.S. Midwest, while planting of some wheat may be delayed due to dry top soils in southern growing regions, Telvent DTN Inc. said in a bulletin yesterday.
U.S. corn and soybean crop conditions deteriorated last week and corn farmers are harvesting at a slower pace than last year after weather hindered crop maturity, the Department of Agriculture reported this week.
About 53 percent of the soybean crop was in good or excellent condition as of Sept. 18, down from 56 percent the previous week and 63 percent a year earlier, the USDA said. About 51 percent of the corn crop was in good or excellent condition, down from 53 percent a week earlier and 68 percent a year earlier, it said.
Lower Yields
Corn may advance to a record as “nervousness” about global supply returns to the market and harvest yields in the U.S. may be less than expected, Newedge USA LLC said today.
Futures may resume their rally after the U.S. harvest in October, jumping to $7.75 to $8 a bushel, as importers fight for supply and the market contends with a third year of global deficit, said Dan Cekander, director for grain research at Newedge, the world’s top futures broker by customer accounts.
Corn for December delivery gained 0.3 percent to $6.92 a bushel, after declining as much as 0.6 percent. Corn is the largest U.S. crop, valued at $66.7 billion in 2010, followed by soybeans at $38.9 billion, USDA data show.
Wheat for December delivery rose as much as 0.6 percent to $6.79 a bushel before trading at $6.775. Prices have slumped 14 percent this month. Corn, soybeans and wheat advanced on speculation that unfavorable weather in growing areas in the U.S., the biggest exporter, may hurt crop yields.
“Given the heavy sell-off we’ve seen even over the past week, you’ve got to start thinking that prices are looking a little over-sold at the moment and could potentially be susceptible to a rebound,” Victor Thianpiriya, an agricultural commodity analyst at Australia & New Zealand Group Ltd., said by phone from Melbourne today. “Crop conditions haven’t been good either, so that’s also price supportive.”
Rain and cool conditions may be unfavorable for corn and soybean crops in parts of the U.S. Midwest, while planting of some wheat may be delayed due to dry top soils in southern growing regions, Telvent DTN Inc. said in a bulletin yesterday.
U.S. corn and soybean crop conditions deteriorated last week and corn farmers are harvesting at a slower pace than last year after weather hindered crop maturity, the Department of Agriculture reported this week.
About 53 percent of the soybean crop was in good or excellent condition as of Sept. 18, down from 56 percent the previous week and 63 percent a year earlier, the USDA said. About 51 percent of the corn crop was in good or excellent condition, down from 53 percent a week earlier and 68 percent a year earlier, it said.
Lower Yields
Corn may advance to a record as “nervousness” about global supply returns to the market and harvest yields in the U.S. may be less than expected, Newedge USA LLC said today.
Futures may resume their rally after the U.S. harvest in October, jumping to $7.75 to $8 a bushel, as importers fight for supply and the market contends with a third year of global deficit, said Dan Cekander, director for grain research at Newedge, the world’s top futures broker by customer accounts.
