Precious metals end lower following positive economic data

Precious metals register modest monthly gains though

Bullion metal prices ended lower on Wednesday, 31 July 2013 at Comex. Prices fell following stronger than expected economic data at Wall Street and a rising dollar. The market place is girding for more major economic data due out on Thursday and Friday. Trading in many markets, including the precious metals, will likely be more active the rest of this week.

Gold for December delivery ended lower by $11.8 (0.9%) at $1,313 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday. Gold ended the month higher by 7.3%.

September silver ended lower by $0.05 (0.3%) at $19.63 an ounce on Wednesday. Silver ended the month higher by 0.8%.

In its latest monetary policy actions the FOMC said U.S. monetary policy will remain highly accommodative for as long as it takes the U.S. economy to get healthy againincluding continuing its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program. The gold market initially pared its solid losses in the immediate aftermath of the FOMC statement, but then selling pressure set back in as traders and investors refocused on Wednesday morning's better U.S. economic data.

On Friday awaits the key U.S. jobs report. The key non-farm payrolls figure is forecast to rise by around 175,000 workers in July. The overall unemployment rate is expected to have declined by 0.1%, to 7.5%. European traders are awaiting the European Central Bank and Bank of England monthly meetings that occur on Thursday. Asian traders and investors are awaiting manufacturing data from China, due out Thursday.

The raw commodity bulls got some encouragement coming out of China Wednesday. Chinese government officials said Wednesday they will maintain a steady economic growth pace despite highly complicated conditions at present. The statement came after a meeting of the Chinese politburo. Also on Wednesday, the Chinese central bank injected money into its financial system for the first time since February, in a signal of easier monetary policy.

The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, rose by 0.3% on Wednesday.

Among economic data expected at Wall Street today, the first day of a bunch of highly anticipated and major economic data saw the U.S. gross domestic product reading for the second quarter. The number came in at up 1.7% when the consensus forecast for the GDP figure was up 0.9%.

Separately, the monthly ADP jobs report, also released Wednesday morning, showed slightly stronger-than-expected gains of 200,000 versus expectations of up 180,000.

Also, the Chicago PMI improved in July as the index increased from 51.6 in June to 52.3. Manufacturing in the Chicago region has now expanded for three consecutive months after contracting in April. The consensus expected the index to fall slightly to 51.5. Even after the gain, the PMI is still well below the May reading when the index reached 58.7. Also of note, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index fell 3.7% to follow last week's 1.2% decline. This marks the seventh negative reading in a row and the eleventh decline out of the past twelve weeks.

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