Gold: а review of the market situation

Gold futures rose significantly, while approaching to yesterday's high, which was associated with the release of the revised US GDP data.

As it became known, the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the economy expanded by 2.2% year on year in the fourth quarter. It was less than the original estimate of 2.6%, which was reported last month. Economists had expected in the fourth quarter GDP will grow by 2.1%. Recent figures show that the breakthrough by 5% in the third quarter and 4.6% in the second quarter were unstable. For 2014 as a whole, GDP increased by 2.4%, slightly better than the average growth for 2010-2013 at 2.2%. For comparison, the economy grew by an average of 3.4% per year during the 1990s. The overall picture in the last quarter was mixed, while consumer spending rose at the fastest pace in four years, but business investment has slowed, and exports also slowed down government spending.

Also continues to provide support to prices statistics on China showed that the total volume of exports and imports of goods from Hong Kong to China in January rose by 2.8% and 7.9%, respectively. In December were observed an increase of 0.6% and 1.9% respectively. "The risk of reducing the price of gold is rather limited due to consumer interest in emerging markets such as China," - said an analyst at Jinrui Futures Chen Ming.

As for the situation in the physical market, the margins on the Shanghai Gold Exchange declined slightly from Wednesday, when the stock exchange resumed work, up to $ 4 per ounce to the price in London.

It is worth emphasizing the precious metal closes the week in positive territory after four weeks of the fall. However, the February gold finish with a maximum drop since September last year, amid expectations that the Fed will raise rates, and an agreement on Greece will reduce demand for safe-haven assets.

Recall expectations rise in interest rates had a negative impact on the dynamics of the price of gold, because it can not compete with earning assets at high rates.

April futures price of gold on the COMEX today rose to 1216.70 dollars per ounce.