Gold Prices Determined To Rally
NEW YORK (
) --
Thursday were popping ahead of Friday's U.S. unemployment number as trading thinned out before the long weekend.
Gold's April Fool's Rally?
Gold for June delivery was rising $13 to $1,127.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices Thursday have traded as high as $1,129.10 and as low as $1,112.30. The
was slightly lower by 0.44% to $80.81. Gold's spot price was rising over $12, according to Kitco's gold index.
Gold prices continued their rally from Wednesday despite uncertainty over Friday's U.S. unemployment number. The Labor Department said initial weekly jobless claims fell by 6,000 to 439,000. Although this was in line with expectations, Wednesday's
Automatic Data Processing
report indicated that the private sector lost 23,000 jobs in March rather than adding. Many economists are expecting unemployment to improve this month.
A disappointing number could temper risk appetite, which would hurt commodities. But the news could also prompt the
Federal Reserve
to keep rates low for an extended period of time pressuring the dollar and supporting gold prices. For now it seems like gold is intent on rallying as markets continue to thin out ahead of Friday's holiday.
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Gold prices are battling their $1,080 and $1,130 range with many analysts looking at $1,150 to $1,160 as the key resistance area. "Risk assets are on the rise ...
and the U.S. dollar is actually resilient at $81 on the index
and gold ...
is still rising," says Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco.com. "It's interesting to note that yesterday's ADP jobs data sparked a rally in gold. Today's better-than-expected jobless claims filings also sparked a gold rally ... I'm not saying this is an April Fool's rally here ... but the exaggerated moves ... are indicative of the fact that this is few players pushing around sufficient sums of money
making for outsized moves."
were up 37 cents to $17.90 while copper was rising 2 cents to $3.58. Platinum supply worries triggered by
Lonmin
closing one of its furnaces were still boosting the metal $25 to $1,672.
Mining stocks, sometimes a more leveraged way to
, were bouncing.
Barrick Gold
(ABX)
was rising 2.90% to $39.40 while
Newmont Mining
(NEM) - Get Newmont Corporation Report
was rising 3.89% to $52.92. Large-cap miners
Kinross Gold
(KGC) - Get Kinross Gold Corporation Report
and
Goldcorp
(GG)
were climbing to $17.53 and $38.73, respectively.
Shares of
Lihir Gold
(LIHR)
were skyrocketing more than 26% to $35.64 after the company
rejected an $8.5 billion bid
from
Newcrest Mining
, arguing its shares weren't properly valued. The company said its gold assets are "world class" as its mines reached an output of 1.124 million ounces last year.
Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold
(FCX) - Get Freeport-McMoRan, Inc. Report
was rising over 3% to $86.28 and
Yamana Gold
(AUY) - Get Yamana Gold Inc. Report
was higher by 3.65% to $10.21.
>>Slideshow: How to Invest in Gold
>>More stories on gold investing
--
Written by Alix Steel in New York
.
Alix joined TheStreet.com TV in February 2007. Previously, she held positions in film and theater production, management, and legal administration. Alix has a degree in communications and theater from Northwestern University.
