Bullions end sharply higher

Prices gain following a weak ISM data at Wall Street

Bullion prices ended sharply higher at Comex on Monday, 03 February 2014. U.S. gold futures rose sharply as the equity market and dollar sagged after a weak manufacturing survey from the Institute for Supply Management.

April gold futures rose $20.10, or 1.6%, to settle at $1,259.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

March silver advanced 29 cents, or 1.5%, to $19.41 an ounce.

Today's economic data at Wall Street was limited to just a pair of reports. A closely followed ISM index on Monday showed that U.S. manufacturers expanded in January at the slowest rate in eight months as the pace of new orders sharply decelerated. The ISM Manufacturing Index for January dropped to 51.3 from 56.5 while the consensus expected the reading to fall to 56.0. That tied the largest one-month decline since October 2008.

Separately, total construction spending increased 0.1% in December after increasing a downwardly revised 0.8% (from 1.0%) in November. The consensus expected construction spending to increase 0.1%. The residential construction spending data does not line up with the contraction reported in the advance estimate for fourth quarter GDP growth.

Following the U.S. ISM data, the dollar dropped to its lowest level against the yen in more than two months. The dollar index slipped by 0.3% on Monday.

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