Precious metals end moderately lower

Lower dollar and firmer crude prices limit selling Bullion metal prices ended moderately lower on Monday, 21 May 2012 at Comex. The key outside markets were mildly bullish for the precious metals Monday, as the U.S. dollar index was slightly lower, while crude oil prices were firmer. That did limit selling pressure in the precious metals markets on Monday. Gold for June delivery ended lower by $3.2 or 0.2%, to end at $1,588.7 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday. The yellow metal saw some consolidation and a corrective pullback after recent strong gains that pushed prices well up from last week's 10-month low of $1,526.70. On Monday, silver prices for July delivery ended lower by 39 cents or 1.4% at $28.32. In the currency market on Monday, the U.S. dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six currencies fell by 0.14%. Generally, a stronger dollar pressures demand for dollar-denominated commodities, such as crude oil and gold, which become more expensive for holders of other currencies and also vice versa. But bullions have registered increase in prices despite strong dollar in recent times and vice versa. The world market place was just a bit more at ease to start the new trading week, as there were no big surprises during the weekend, either from the Group of Eight world leaders meeting at Camp David, or from the fallout from the JP Morgan trading loss debacle, or from the European Union debt crisis. In fact, the market place seemed preoccupied with the FaceBook initial public offering that appears to have flopped. The G-8 during the weekend attempted to assuage the markets by stating it wants Greece to remain in the European Union. And reports out of Greece said the more conservative political party is regaining some momentum heading into the June Greek elections. The next big news headline event for the market place is an EU summit meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. There is still some talk of further quantitative easing of U.S. monetary policy (QE3) if U.S. economic data disappoints. Such would arguably be commodity-market bullish and possibly stock market bullish, despite the specter of reduced demand prospects due to the sluggish economy. Traders and investors will continue to closely monitor U.S., EU and Chinese economic data for early clues on monetary policy actions from the central banks. At the MCX, gold prices for June delivery closed higher by Rs 62 (0.21%) at Rs 29,035 per ten grams. Prices rose to a high of Rs 29,174 per 10 grams and fell to a low of Rs 28,956 per 10 grams during the day's trading. At the MCX, silver prices for July delivery closed lower by Rs 446 (0.81%) at Rs 54,130/Kg. Prices opened at Rs 54,525/kg and fell to a low of Rs 53,865/Kg during the day's trading.