Gold: an overview of the market situation

Gold prices rose today, partly recovering from the recession more than 1% in the previous session, which was associated with a decrease in concerns about the program to purchase assets of the Federal Reserve System. Recall that yesterday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank still plans to start reducing the amount of asset purchases later this year, but has left open the possibility of changing the plan if necessary.

Note also that in the course of today's trading affected data from the Ministry of Labour, which showed that the number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, a sign that employers continue to steadily recruit.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 334,000 in the week ended July 13. In addition, the previous week's figures were revised up to 358,000 from 360,000. Economists had expected the number of hits will be 349 thousand

Numbers fluctuate in recent weeks, which is probably due to seasonal factors, such as the closure of some plants in the summer. Four-week moving average of claims fell by 5,250 to 346,000 last week. The report also stated that the number of continuing claims rose by 91,000 to 3.114 million in the week ended July 6.

Experts point out that recent data may reinforce the view that the Federal Reserve will begin to phase out its ambitious incentive program in September, but some traders warn that the July report, usually heavily distorted by seasonal factors.

Also today it was announced that the largest gold reserves in the Fund ETF SPDR Gold Trust fell yesterday by 1.5 million tons to 937.57 million tons.

The cost of the August gold futures on COMEX today rose to a high of $ 1285.20 an ounce.