gold hits three-month high

Hi guys enjoy the article.
Anyone putting off buying????
Go ABU and good luck to all.

https://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2014/2/14/commodities/gold-hits-three-month-high

Gold hits three-month high

Gold prices rose to their highest level in three months Thursday, as weaker-than-expected United States economic data bolstered the case for a slower rollback of the Federal Reserve's bond-buying program.

Retail sales fell in January, marking the second straight monthly decline. Meanwhile, the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, the latest sign of rockiness in the labour market.

Taken together, the two pieces of data offered further evidence that the US economic recovery has stumbled in 2014, giving another boost to the price of gold, viewed by some investors as a haven that should perform better than assets such as stocks at times of uncertainty.

"The data was very much a one-two punch," said Rich Ilczyszyn, chief market strategist at iiTrader.com. "Not great news for the economy, but very encouraging to gold bugs."

The most actively traded contract, gold for April delivery, rose to a high of $US1,300.60 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its highest level since November 8. It recently traded at $1,298, up $3.60, or 0.3 per cent, rising for a seventh straight session.

Prices for the precious metal have climbed more than 3.5 per cent since February 4, amid a spate of anemic data releases that lent weight to the argument for a slower withdrawal of Fed stimulus. Gold is considered a hedge against inflation and a weaker dollar, two risks associated with the central bank's loose monetary policy.

Chinese trade data Wednesday showed both imports and exports sharply higher in January, defying expectations of a slowdown in the economy of the world's largest gold consumer. Some market participants, however, said the Chinese data could be the result of companies overstating the value of their shipments to get money past China's strict capital controls and into the country for investment, a practice known as over-invoicing.

Gold prices have also received a boost this year as worries about the health of some developing economies and a swoon in equities markets renewed demand for alternative assets.

Some investors are taking the weak US data with a grain of salt, contending that the slowdown can be attributed to extreme cold and snowy conditions seen throughout much of the country in January and February.

"Weather conditions have indeed been bad in the last two months," said Frank Lesh, a broker at FuturePath Trading. "It won't be until March data starts coming in that we get a clearer picture."
- Dow Jones Newswires