Investing.com - Gold futures edged higher on Thursday, trading just below the previous day’s three-month high as sentiment on the precious metal improved after breaking through a key resistance level on Wednesday.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for April delivery traded at USD1,778.95 a troy ounce during early European morning trade, gaining 0.43%.
It earlier rose by as much as 0.5% to trade at a session high USD1,779.85 a troy ounce.
Futures were likely to find support at USD1,750.85 a troy ounce, Wednesday’s low and resistance at USD1,796.45, the high from November 14.
Gold futures rose 1% on Wednesday to settle at the best level since last November as some technical buying emerged after prices broke above a key technical resistance level close to USD1,765 an ounce.
Market participants said that the breach above that level signaled an upward momentum in prices and triggered fresh buy orders from large institutional investors and hedge funds.
Global financial service provider HSBC Holdings said in a report earlier that “a wave of technically motivated momentum driven buying washed over the market. We detected no obvious macro or geopolitical event to support the rally.”
Some analysts attributed the sharp upward move to growing expectations for further monetary easing measures from global central banks.
Gold prices received a strong lift last month after the Federal Reserve pledged to push back the timing of a possible interest rate increase until late 2014 and indicated that the bank may embark on a third round of quantitative easing.
Gold can benefit from such an environment of easy money because of expectations that ample liquidity would put a damper on the value of paper currencies and boost inflation.
Meanwhile, concerns over Greece’s debt woes remained in focus. Investors remained jittery amid sustained concerns over whether a second EUR130 billion bailout for Greece will be enough to resolve the country’s fiscal woes as the economic situation continues to deteriorate.
On Wednesday, Fitch Ratings cut Greece’s credit rating to C from CCC and reiterated that a bond-swap agreement with private creditors would be a restricted default.
While gold is traditionally viewed as a safe haven, the metal has been tracking riskier assets in the past few months as the turmoil caused by the euro zone debt crisis forces investors to sell their profitable gold positions to cover losses elsewhere.
Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for March delivery rose 0.85% to trade at USD34.54 a troy ounce, while copper for March delivery eased down 0.15% to trade at USD3.827 a pound.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for April delivery traded at USD1,778.95 a troy ounce during early European morning trade, gaining 0.43%.
It earlier rose by as much as 0.5% to trade at a session high USD1,779.85 a troy ounce.
Futures were likely to find support at USD1,750.85 a troy ounce, Wednesday’s low and resistance at USD1,796.45, the high from November 14.
Gold futures rose 1% on Wednesday to settle at the best level since last November as some technical buying emerged after prices broke above a key technical resistance level close to USD1,765 an ounce.
Market participants said that the breach above that level signaled an upward momentum in prices and triggered fresh buy orders from large institutional investors and hedge funds.
Global financial service provider HSBC Holdings said in a report earlier that “a wave of technically motivated momentum driven buying washed over the market. We detected no obvious macro or geopolitical event to support the rally.”
Some analysts attributed the sharp upward move to growing expectations for further monetary easing measures from global central banks.
Gold prices received a strong lift last month after the Federal Reserve pledged to push back the timing of a possible interest rate increase until late 2014 and indicated that the bank may embark on a third round of quantitative easing.
Gold can benefit from such an environment of easy money because of expectations that ample liquidity would put a damper on the value of paper currencies and boost inflation.
Meanwhile, concerns over Greece’s debt woes remained in focus. Investors remained jittery amid sustained concerns over whether a second EUR130 billion bailout for Greece will be enough to resolve the country’s fiscal woes as the economic situation continues to deteriorate.
On Wednesday, Fitch Ratings cut Greece’s credit rating to C from CCC and reiterated that a bond-swap agreement with private creditors would be a restricted default.
While gold is traditionally viewed as a safe haven, the metal has been tracking riskier assets in the past few months as the turmoil caused by the euro zone debt crisis forces investors to sell their profitable gold positions to cover losses elsewhere.
Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for March delivery rose 0.85% to trade at USD34.54 a troy ounce, while copper for March delivery eased down 0.15% to trade at USD3.827 a pound.