Marginal gains for bullions

Prices rebounded after a five-session losing streak

Bullion prices ended higher on Monday, 15 September 2014 at Comex. Prices rebounded after a five-session losing streak took a big bite out of prices ahead of the Federal Reserve's meeting, set to kick off Tuesday.

Gold for December delivery rose $3.60 to settle at $1,235.10 an ounce.

December silver added a penny to $18.56 an ounce.

The FOMC meeting is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, to be followed by a press conference from Chair Janet Yellen. Observers have said this meeting may be more important than usual as the Fed winds down its purchases of government bonds, known as quantitative easing, and with market participants wondering how far into the future before policy-makers start hiking the federal funds rate, assuming the economic recovery continues.

U.S. economic reports on the calendar on Monday morning include the New York Federal Reserve's Empire State manufacturing survey and the Fed's release of industrial production and capacity utilization. The Empire Manufacturing Survey for September registered a reading of 27.5, which was above the prior month's reading of 14.7. The consensus expected a reading of 16.0.

The industrial production report for August certainly didn't go according to script as it showed production declining 0.1% versus the consensus estimate, which called for a 0.3% increase. A 7.6% decline in the production of motor vehicle and parts was the big drag on total industrial production for the month. That contributed to a 4.4% drop in the output of durable consumer goods and led to a 0.4% decline in manufacturing production. The production data for July was revised down to show a 0.2% increase versus an originally reported 0.4% increase. Capacity utilization slumped to 78.8%, which was also below the consensus estimate of 79.3% and below a downwardly revised 79.1% (from 79.2%) reading for July.

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