Gold Heads for Weekly Loss as SPDR Assets Extend Drop, Oil Slips

Gold headed for a weekly decline as investors assessed the timing of higher U.S. borrowing costs amid slumping energy prices, with assets in the SPDR Gold Trust posting the longest period of decline since May 2013.
Bullion for immediate delivery fell as much as 0.4 percent to $1,157.94 an ounce, and traded at $1,160.41 at 8:48 a.m. in Singapore, down 1.5 percent this week, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. Holdings in the SPDR, the largest exchange-traded product backed by the metal, shrank to a six-year low of 720.62 metric tons yesterday, contracting for an eighth day.
Gold is heading for the first consecutive annual loss since 2000 as oil prices at a four-year low eroded demand for an inflation hedge, and the Federal Reserve moves closer to the first rate increase since 2006. Global demand slid 2.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier to the lowest level since 2009, the World Gold Council said yesterday. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index traded near a five-year high before a U.S. retail sales report today forecast to show a small increase.
“Unless some material change occurs in the U.S. economy, we believe a rate hike remains on the cards, keeping gold price weak,” Zhu Runyu, an analyst at CITIC Futures Co., a unit of China’s largest listed brokerage, said in an e-mail today.
New York Fed President William C. Dudley said raising interest rates too early poses a bigger risk to the economy than acting too late. Fed policy makers ended a bond-buying program last month as the jobless rate fell to a six-year low.
Gold for December delivery lost 0.2 percent to $1,159.70 an ounce on the Comex in New York, on course for a fourth week of losses. Most-active prices are 3.7 percent lower this year after losing 28 percent in 2013.
Silver for immediate delivery slid 0.6 percent to $15.5645 an ounce, heading for a fifth weekly drop, The metal retreated 20 percent this year and dropped to $15.0681 on Nov. 7, the lowest price since February 2010.
Spot platinum traded at $1,193.63 an ounce from $1,196.50 yesterday, set for a fifth week of declines. Palladium was little changed at $766.95 an ounce, poised for a second weekly decrease.

Sumber : Bloomberg

Glencore to Shut Australian Coal Mines for Three Weeks

Glencore Plc (GLEN), the world’s biggest exporter of power-station coal, will stop production at its Australian mines for three weeks as prices languish at a five-year low.
The decision to halt operations starting in mid-December will rein in output in Australia by about 5 million metric tons, the Baar, Switzerland-based company said in a statement today. That’s equal to about 6 percent of Glencore’s Australian coal production last year.
Glencore, led by Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg, is tapping the brakes on what has been a steady period of growth in coal production. A slide in prices has forced operators to shut mines as lower-cost producers like Glencore raised output, deepening a global glut.
“There is a broad, bearish tone in the market and investors are focusing on the negative headlines,” Daniel Hynes, senior commodity strategist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., said today by phone. “So whether this actually supports the short-term price is debatable, but on a fundamental basis it will help.”

Expanding Mines

Glencore, which proposed a merger with Rio Tinto Group in July, reported earlier this month that it increased coal output by 9.2 percent in the third quarter to 40.2 million tons, driven by expansion at energy coal mines in Australia. Glencore’s Australian coal output last year was 81 million tons, according to a presentation in September.
The price of energy coal from Australia’s Newcastle port, a benchmark for Asia, is down 27 percent this year to $61.85 a ton last week, the lowest since 2009, according to McCloskey.
“We remain confident in demand growth for our products and believe that the supply and demand balance will be restored in the medium term,” the company said today.
In the iron ore industry, Glasenberg has argued that his two biggest rivals have got it wrong by feeding a global glut.

Sumber : Bloomberg

Yen Near Seven-Year Low Amid Speculation Abe to Call Election

The yen traded 0.5 percent from a seven-year low amid speculation Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will call a general election to shore up support and postpone a planned sales-tax increase.

The yen reached 116.10 per dollar this week, the least since October 2007, after a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker said preparations for a snap election have begun. It rebounded yesterday after Finance Minister Taro Aso downplayed the possibility of a delay in raising the levy. The euro held a loss before German data forecast to confirm consumer prices fell last month. The Aussie traded near the highest in a week before Chinese data on retail sales and industrial production.

The yen traded at 115.50 per dollar as of 9:21 a.m. in Tokyo from 115.49 yesterday, when it rose 0.3 percent. It was little changed at 143.66 per euro. The shared currency was at $1.2434, after declining 0.3 percent in New York.

Australia™s dollar traded at 87.16 U.S. cents from 87.19 yesterday, when it touched 87.45, the most since Nov. 5.

Japan™s currency has tumbled 5.5 percent against the dollar since Oct. 30, the most among its developed-market peers, after policy makers surprised investors at the end of last month with further currency-depreciating stimulus from the Bank of Japan and pension reforms that allow more money to flow abroad and into domestic stocks. Japan™s Nikkei 225 Stock Average has surged 9.2 percent, and closed above 17,000 this week for the first time in seven years.

Source : Bloomberg

Gold Investor Exit Shakes Off Boredom With Higher Volatility

The rout that sent gold prices to a four-year low is also shaking boredom out of the market, with a rebound in volatility that™s giving some investors more reason to sell.

The metal™s 30-day volatility is close to the highest since January, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The measure in October touched the lowest since 2010, with investors ignoring gold in favor of equities for most of the year.

Gains for the U.S. labor market lured the bears back. The metal erased its 2014 advance just before the Federal Reserve said it would stop buying bonds. The declines accelerated as the dollar climbed to a five-year high against a basket of 10 currencies and tumbling energy costs signaled tame inflation. In the week ended Nov. 4, hedge funds cut net-bullish gold bets by the most this year, and short holdings rose for the first time in a month, the most-recent U.S. government data show.

Gold futures for delivery in December fell 0.3 percent to settle at $1,159.10 an ounce at 1:40 p.m. on the Comex in New York. Earlier, the price climbed as much as 0.6 percent. On Nov. 7, the metal touched $1,130.40, the lowest for a most-active contract since April 2010.

Source : Bloomberg