Precious metals end 0.3% higher at Comex

Political conflict in Ukraine and US economic data impact prices

Bullion prices ended 0.3% higher at Comex on Thursday, 27 February 2014. Gold futures finished higher on Thursday as tensions in the Ukrainian political conflict contributed to higher safe-haven demand and remarks from Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen to the US Congress also boosted prices. Gold also got a boost on the back of a climb in weekly U.S. jobless claims and decline in monthly durable goods orders.

Gold for April delivery gained $3.80, or 0.3%, to settle at $1,331.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices rebounded after falling 1.1% on Wednesday.

March silver settled at $21.31 an ounce, up 6 cents, or 0.3%, after briefly pulling back earlier. Prices for the metal lost 3.2% on Wednesday.

Yellen's speech to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee Thursday morning was not much different from her remarks to a House of Representatives panel a few weeks ago. However, she did in Thursday's remarks mention some recent weaker U.S. economic data. Such might make the U.S. central bank less aggressive in winding down its quantitative easing program that has been in place for several years, but which just recently has been scaled back. Traders and investors were looking for any clues regarding future monetary policy moves by the Federal Reserve, including the pace of the Fed's tapering of its monthly bond-buying program. Yellen's speech was originally scheduled for a couple weeks ago, but was postponed due to inclement weather.

The crisis in Ukraine is still a worry to the market place. The country is on the verge of financial collapse and needs funding soon from outside sources.

U.S. economic data released Thursday included the weekly jobless claims report, durable goods orders, and the Kansas City Fed manufacturing survey. Taken together, this latest data again favored the weak side of market expectations. Initial claims increased to 348,000 from a downwardly revised 334,000 (from 336,000) while the consensus pegged the initial claims level at 335,000. It was likely that the Presidents' Day holiday negatively impacted the seasonal adjustments last week.

Regarding durable goods, orders fell 1.0% in January after declining a downwardly revised 5.3% (from -4.2%) in December. The consensus expected durable goods orders to fall 1.0%. A big drop in aircraft orders (-7.2%) pulled overall transportation demand down 5.6%. Excluding transportation, orders increased 1.1% after falling a downwardly revised 1.9% (from -1.3%) in December. The consensus expected these orders to decline 0.2%.

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