Bullions end little higher

Gold sees a relief rally as the FOMC minutes contained no new, hawkish information

Bullion metal prices ended higher on Wednesday, 10 July 2013 at Comex. Comex gold futures prices ended the U.S. day session with slight gains on Wednesday, but then rallied to near the daily high after the release of the U.S. Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting minutes. Gold saw a relief rally as the FOMC minutes contained no new, hawkish information.

Gold for August delivery ended higher by $1.5 (0.1%) at $1,247.4 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday.

September silver ended higher by $0.03 (0.1%) at $19.17 an ounce on Wednesday.

The market place was just a bit surprised by the FOMC minutes reporting that around half of the 19 committee members are in favor of starting to wind down or “taper” its monthly bond-buying program, also known as quantitative easing, by the end of this year. The minutes also said most FOMC members want to see more economic data before making any firm conclusions on ending QE. The minutes mainly discussed how Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke should articulate the Fed's monetary policy to the public. The consensus in the market place at present is that the Fed will start to cut back its bond purchases sometime later this year.

China's latest manufacturing report was released on Wednesday and it came in on the weak side. Exports fell 3.1% in June, on an annualized basis. A 3.3% gain was expected. Chinese imports were down 0.7% on the year, while a 5.5% increase was forecast. The news had a somewhat limited impact on the market place, as the Chinese premiere said Wednesday China will continue on its path of long-term reform.

European stock markets were pressured on Wednesday after the Standard & Poors ratings agency lowered Italy's sovereign credit rating. The European Union's sovereign debt crisis has been on the back burner of the market place for several months, but the situation has never been fully cleared up and could at any time heat up to roil world markets.

The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, fell by 0.3% on Wednesday.

Among economic data expected at Wall Street today, May wholesale inventories decreased 0.5% while the consensus expected an uptick of 0.3%. Today's report followed last month's revised decrease of 0.1%.

At the MCX, gold prices for August delivery closed higher by Rs 93 (0.4%) at Rs 26,103 per ten grams. Prices rose to a high of Rs 26,251 per 10 grams and fell to a low of Rs 25,976 per 10 grams during the day's trading.

At the MCX, silver prices for September delivery closed higher by Rs 6 (0.01%) at Rs 40,174/Kg. Prices opened at Rs 40,060/Kg and rose to a high of Rs 40,500/Kg during the day's trading.