Precious metals maintain upward momentum at Comex

Investors remained cautious with earnings season underway

Bullion prices ended higher at Comex on Tuesday, 13 January 2015. Gold prices edged up on Tuesday, maintaining their upward momentum as investors remained cautious with earnings season underway. A day earlier, gold prices again capitalized on the rising volatility in the equity market and built on the prior week's 2.5% advance. Investors dumped stocks as oil continued to drop.

Gold for February delivery rose $1.60, or 0.1%, to $1,234.40 an ounce.

March silver climbed 59 cents, or 3.6%, to $17.16 an ounce.

Crude oil prices were again lower on Tuesday and fell to a nearly six-year low overnight. A United Arab Emirates OPEC minister reportedly said the cartel will not reduce its collective output. Crude prices fell on that news, with February Nymex crude dropping to $44.20 a barrel.

The U.S. dollar index was higher and is near last week's 10-year high. While certainly not a positive for the raw commodity sector, the stronger greenback appears to be having less daily impact on raw commodity market prices, including the precious metals.

In overnight news, a report showed consumer inflation in the U.K. was at a 10-year low in December. The steep drop in crude oil prices is blamed for the U.K. inflation reading coming in at up 0.5% in December from up 1.0% in November, year-on-year. Meantime, Greece reported its consumer price index at minus 2.6% in December, year-on-year. Economic readings in the EU are already hinting at deflation knocking on the door.

The next major data point coming into focus for traders and investors is the 22 January 2015 meeting of the European Central Bank. The specter of price deflation and rhetoric coming from ECB officials suggest the central bank will soon initiate monetary stimulus in the forming of quantitative easing.

U.S. economic data out Tuesday included the weekly Johnson Redbook and Goldman Sachs retail sales reports, the monthly Treasury budget statement, a report from the World Bank on world economic prospects, and the NFIB small business index. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that openings increased to 4.972 million from 4.830 million in November. The Treasury Budget for December showed a surplus of $1.90 billion, which followed the prior surplus of $53.20 billion. The consensus expected the surplus to hit $3.00 billion.

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