A number of developments make us concerned for the bull camp in gold today with the most prominent obviously coming from what appears to be a slight concession by China to reduce tariffs on certain commodity imports.
However, the gold market is also facing the prospect of a positive nonfarm payroll reading from the US which is expected to show a fairly healthy increase and even a slightly lower than expectations reading should lead to economic confidence.
Yet another negative for gold comes from what appears to be a contradictory headline to recent news flow with Indian government-connected sources suggesting gold imports in November might have declined by 19% versus year-ago levels. However, the November imports were still markedly larger than the imports seen in September and October and the trade has not been as intensely focused on physical demand as it has been on the prospect of safe-haven demand.
Clearly US data yesterday tamped down economic uncertainty and given that Thursday's data was heavily jobs related data that could mean positive jobs data today might unleash a wave of selling in gold and silver. Traders might consider the purchase of near-to-expiration, just out of the money January gold puts.
We invite you to subscribe to receive our more comprehensive market update delivered directly to your inbox.
Non-Reliance and Risk Disclosure: The opinions expressed here are for general information purposes only and should not be construed as trade recommendations, nor a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any precious metals product. The material presented is based on information that we consider reliable, but we do not represent that it is accurate, complete and/or up to date, and it should not be relied on as such. Opinions expressed are current as of the time of posting and only represent the views of the author and not those of Zaner Financial Services LLC, unless otherwise expressly noted.
