Gold remained choppy last night, trading either side of unchanged in a range of $1285 - $1291.
The yellow metal climbed to its $1291 high during late Asian time, as the US dollar was pulling back to 96.85 after a previous advance to 96.98.
During European time, gold dipped to its $1285 low as the DX recovered to 96.96, boosted by weakness in the pound ($1.3175 - $1.3129, Brexit talks remain stuck after UK’s Cox and Barclay met with the EU’s Barnier).
A decline in the US 10-year bond yield (2.701% - 1-week low) was gold supportive, while global equities were mixed with the NIKKEI down 0.6%, the SCI up 1.6%, European shares ranged from -0.2% to +0.2%, and S&P futures were off 0.1%.
A decline in oil (WTI from $56.50 - $55.80) from a much larger than expected build in US oil inventories reported by the API last night and the OECD cutting its global growth to 3.3% from 3.5% forecast were headwinds for stocks.
Gold’s choppy trade continued through the NY open off of two early US economic reports.
At 8:15 AM, the headline US ADP Employment Change Report was worse than expected (183k vs. exp. 190k) and algorithmic trading sent the DX down to 96.82, took gold up to $1288.50.
However, after digesting a large (300k vs. 213k) upward revision to last month’s report, S&P futures turned positive (2792), the DX shot to 97, and knocked gold under the overnight low to reach $1284.
Shortly thereafter at 8:30 AM, the US December Trade Balance Report was worse than expected (-$59.8B vs. exp. -$57.8B, highest in 10 years), with a large negative revision to the November report. The DX plunged to 96.81, and gold recovered to $1286.50.
...