Investing.com – Gold futures added to gains for the second day in U.S. trade on Friday, following the announcement by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank it would postpone a decision on quantitative easing until its next meeting in September.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for October delivery traded at USD1,781.05 a troy ounce during mid-day U.S. trade, up USD12.50 or 0.72%.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, speaking from the central bank’s annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, said although the Fed had the capacity to stimulate U.S. economic growth, further discussion was necessary to weigh the benefits of an additional round of quantitative easing.
Despite gold’s Friday gains, the metal is on track for its first weekly loss in eight weeks as profit takers have nibbled away at gains following Tuesday’s record high of USD1,911.46.
Wall Street gains siphoned some investors away from safe-haven investments and back into equities as the Dow Jones Jones Industrial Average added 1.43%, the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 2.42% and the S&P 500 gained 1.61%.
Earlier in the day, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that U.S. gross domestic product rose to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1% in the second quarter. That followed a 1.3% rise the previous three-month period but was below market expectations for a 1.1% gain for the April to June quarter.
Global financial advisor UBS said in a note Friday " that the recent sell-off reflected some scaling back of QE3 (quantitative easing) expectations suggests that gold's reaction to potential disappointment today may be less severe," Reuters news reported.
Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for September delivery fell 1.08% to trade at USD40.61 a troy ounce, while copper for September delivery rose 0.18% to trade at USD4.097 a pound.