May 26, 2017

PRECIOUS-Gold steady as Asian stocks slip after oil slump

(Reuters) - Gold prices held steady after dipping slightly earlier in the session on Friday as Asian stocks eased following an extension of output curbs by OPEC and other producing nations that left investors hoping for bigger cuts disappointed.  

Oil markets remained weak on Friday, after tumbling 5 percent in the previous session.

Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,257.01 per ounce by 0411 GMT. The yellow metal almost flat for the week.

U.S. gold futures gained 0.1 percent to $1,257.2 an ounce.   

"The risk of a rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve in June is still sort of hanging over the market, while a broader weakness in some industrial commodities and oil was probably a factor (for a slight weakness in gold this morning)," said Jordan Eliseo, chief economist at ABC Bullion.

The big data points for the day though will be the Q1 GDP figures from the U.S. as well as the durable goods figures, headded.

Spot gold is biased to test a resistance at $1,264 per ounce, a break below which could lead to a gain to the next resistance at $1,276, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.

"The precious metals group did well to hold up as well as it did on Thursday given new highs set by the U.S. stock market, a generally firmer dollar and an imploding crude oil market," INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said in a note. 

"We did issue a buy recommendation on gold some two days ago and will stick with that for the time being, especially considering how well the complex held up in Thursday's session against a variety of headwinds."

In the wider markets, Asian stocks slipped on Friday with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, which closed at a two-year high on Thursday, falling 0.2 percent.   

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was steady and last traded at 97.297. 

Among other precious metals, spot silver was up 0.1 pct at $17.14, platinum dipped 0.2 pct to $944.85, while palladium was down $0.2 pct at $769.35.

Silver and platinum are on track to rise for the third straight week having gained nearly 2 percent and one percent respectively so far for the week.

Palladium is up over one percent for the week and on track for its first weekly gain this month.