Markets Are Getting Fresh

Gold rallied more than 2.6 percent on Thursday, its largest one-day gain since late January, as technical buy signals and new signs of a sluggish U.S. economy more than offset deepening despair over the euro zone. After flirting with a bear market on Wednesday, down more than 20 percent from its September record, bullion rallied early after Philadelphia Federal Reserve data showed a contraction in factory activity in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region that rekindled some hope the Fed would plough more money into the system to stimulate the economy, traders said. Technical buying also fueled gains after gold had nearly hit a key December low, trading just shy of key technical long-term support at the 100-week moving average of $1,515 per oz. But with the euro and U.S. stocks in decline and ...

Gold rose more than 1 percent on Thursday, bouncing off a 4-1/2 month low, as weaker prices attracted new physical buyers, but gains were likely to be limited as the euro was undermined by fears of a deepening debt crisis in Greece. Spot gold rose 1 percent to $1,553.80 an ounce by 09.07 a.m. EDT, from $1,538.30 late in New York on Wednesday, when it plunged to $1,527 - its weakest since December 29. The precious metal rose to a high of $1,557.56 earlier, helped by the approaching expiry of gold options in the COMEX futures market. U.S. gold futures hit a high of $1,557.90 an ounce and were at $1,554.30, up 1.1 percent. The contract had plunged to a multi-month low of $1,526.70 on Wednesday. Gold, traditionally a safe-haven asset, has been moving in tandem with riskier assets such as ...

Gold slipped to a fresh 4-1/2 month low on Tuesday as the euro continued to lose ground to the dollar after Greece's failure to form a coalition government heightened concerns over Europe's financial crisis and led investors to spurn risky assets. After six rounds of fruitless wrangling, Greece abandoned efforts to form a government and called a new election that some investors fear may hand victory to the leftists, undo the country's financial bailout package, and push it closer to bankruptcy and out of the euro zone. In response, gold slipped with the euro, which tumbled to new four-month lows in late New York trade. The euro had fallen in five of the last six sessions on worries over Greece's June election prospects, dragging gold down with it. Spot gold was off 0.88 percent ...

Fresh RRR cut chatter coming from China officials; Shirakawa commits to powerful easing if needed for Japan Economic Data (JP) JAPAN MAR MERCHANDISE TRADE BALANCE TOTAL: -¥82.6B V -¥223BE; ADJ MERCHANDISE TRADE BALANCE: -¥621B V -¥446BE (multi-year low) (BR) BRAZIL CENTRAL BANK (COPOM) CUTS SELIC TARGET RATE BY 75BPS TO 9.00%; AS EXPECTED (2nd consecutive 75BPS cut) (NZ) NEW ZEALAND Q1 CONSUMER PRICES (CPI) Q/Q: 0.5% V 0.5%E (3-quarter high); Y/Y: 1.6% V 1.6%E (KR) SOUTH KOREA MAR DEPARTMENT STORE SALES Y/Y: 1.6% V 2.9% PRIOR; DISCOUNT STORE SALES Y/Y: +3.2% V -6.4% PRIOR (AU) AUSTRALIA MAR RBA FOREIGN EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS (A$): 944.0M V 372M PRIOR (AU) AUSTRALIA Q1 NAB BUSINESS CONFIDENCE: -1 V 1 PRIOR (NZ) NEW ZEALAND MAR ANZ NZ JOB ADS M/M: -1.0% V 4.6% PRIOR (JP) Japan investors ...

(Reuters) - The euro dipped against the dollar on Wednesday after the French President said a strong euro hurt exporters and should be discussed with the European Central Bank, and it looked set to stay under pressure with investors still wary of Spain's fiscal problems. Traders cited selling by Swiss investors after French leader Nicholas Sarkozy said the euro's exchange rate should be up for discussion with the ECB. The common currency hit a session low of $1.3087, falling around 0.3 percent on the day. The move erased modest gains made the previous day on upbeat earnings from U.S. companies, decent demand at a Spanish bill auction and a better-than-expected German ZEW sentiment survey. Market players said the euro could come under further pressure ahead of a Spanish bond auction on ...

(Reuters) - The euro fell broadly on Monday, dropping to a two-month low against the dollar and the safe-haven yen and reaching a 1-1/2 year trough against the British pound, as Spain rekindled worries about the fragile state of the euro zone economy. As Spanish 10-year government bond yields rose above 6 percent for the first time this year and the cost of insuring its debt hit a record high, sentiment was cautious across financial markets. That weighed on growth-linked currencies such as the Australian dollar while keeping the yen near a seven-week high against the U.S. dollar. News over the weekend that China had doubled the yuan's daily trading band against the dollar to one percent has so far had limited impact on major currencies. Spain's failure to convince investors that it can ...

(Reuters) - Sometimes a little bit of inflation is not such a bad thing. In the United States, prices starting to creep upward shows the deep wounds from the credit crisis are slowly healing and the U.S. economy is well on the road to recovery. The evidence is scattered but it also shows up in some national reports. Consumer inflation, after stripping out volatile food and energy prices, has edged upward over the past year and now is running just above the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target. Workers' pay is nudging higher as the labor market gradually improves. Hourly earnings have grown at an average annual rate of 2 percent since last May and posted a 2.1 percent gain last month, up from a 1.8 percent pace a year earlier. Home prices in a few cities, including Miami and Phoenix, have ...

Copper steadied on Thursday following a 3 percent loss the prior session, helped by consumer buying and stabilizing appetite for risk, but any gain was expected to be limited ahead of the long Easter weekend in U.S. and European markets. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange traded at $8,335.25 a metric ton at 0930 GMT, down by 0.2 percent from a close of $8,350 a metric ton on Wednesday. Copper this week rallied to within 1 percent of 2012 peaks above $8,700 a metric ton on anticipation of fresh easing by the world's biggest economy, before minutes from a U.S. monetary policy meeting on Tuesday quashed those expectations and led to a divestment of risk across markets. Prices have been caught in a sideways range since late January, buttressed by consumer buying around $8,200 a ...

(Reuters) - Global stocks dropped more than 1 percent and the euro fell to a 3-week low against the dollar on Wednesday a day after U.S. central bank meeting minutes dented hopes for more economic stimulus and a Spanish debt auction drew weak results. Gold prices hit their lowest since early January, while U.S. bonds rallied as losses in the stock market enhanced the bid for safe-haven U.S. government debt. Comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi that the euro zone's economic outlook is subject to downside risks related to the debt crisis and commodity prices further weighed on the euro, as well as gold. Draghi's comments came in a news conference after the ECB announced it was holding interest rates at record lows, as widely expected. The Federal Reserve's minutes ...