Gold futures rise for third consecutive session
Bullion metals ended higher on Friday, 09 August 2013. Gold futures rose for a third consecutive session on Friday following upbeat economic data from China.
Gold for December delivery rose $2.30 (0.2%) to end at $1,312.20 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the week, the contract rose $1.70 from last Friday's closing level of $1,310.50.
On Friday, September silver gained 22 cents (1%) to end at $20.41 an ounce.
There was more encouraging data from China on Friday, with industrial output rising 9.7% in July from a year ago, exceeding expectations. Chinese data is important, because the nation is a major consumer of commodities including metals.
Gold futures have dropped more than 22% this year, pressured by relatively low inflation and indications that the Federal Reserve will soon start to scale back its monetary stimulus to the economy.
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At Wall Street on Friday, economic data was limited to wholesale inventories, which fell 0.2% in June after declining a downwardly revised 0.6% (from -0.5%) in May. That was the third consecutive monthly decline and the fourth monthly drop so far in 2013. The expected wholesale inventories to increase 0.4%.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis assumed that wholesale inventories were flat in June in the advance estimate for second quarter GDP growth. The downward surprise will add a minor negative contribution to the revisions in the second estimate.
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