Gold climbed overnight in a range of $1311.50 - $1319.40. It was fairly steady during Asian time, trading narrowly between $1311.50 - $1313 against a similarly steady US dollar (DX between 97.01 – 97.08.
During European time, however, gold climbed to its high of $1319.40 – briefly penetrating the stiff resistance between $1315-18 (9 tops - 2/4, 2/5, 2/6, 2/8, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, and 2/14 highs) that has proved to be formidable over the past two weeks.
Uncharacteristically, gold was able to advance despite the DX firming (97.20), which was boosted by weakness in the euro ($1.1297 - $1.1260) as ECB’s Coeure fueled talk of fresh ECB stimulus and acknowledged the Eurozone’s recent economic slowdown is more pronounced than earlier expected.
Gold was also able to rally in the face of mostly firmer global equities, which were lifted by increasing hopes of a US/China trade deal as President Xi announced that the talks would continue in Washington next week.
The NIKKEI was off 1.1%, the SCI was down 1.4% (weaker Chinese CPI and PPI), European markets were up from 0.4% to 1.1%, and S&P futures were +0.2%. Higher oil prices (WTI from $54.41 - $55.07) aided the move in stocks.
At 8:30 AM, a better than expected reading on the US Empire State Manufacturing Index (8.8 vs. exp. 7.6) outweighed misses on Import Prices (-0.5% vs exp. -0.1%) and Export Prices (-0.6% vs. exp. -0.1%).
S&P futures climbed further (2757), and the US 10-year bond yield traded up to 2.682% (retraced most of the dip off of yesterday’s anemic Retail Sales Report). The DX shot up to 97.37 (2-month high), which was lifted by further weakness in the euro ($1.2234) off of the Coeure comments.
Gold declined in response, but decent...