SINGAPORE, May 22 (Reuters) – Gold slipped on Thursday as
the top bullion-backed fund posted its biggest outflow in three
weeks and after the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated it would
continue to trim its stimulus measures.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold had fallen $1 to $1,290.40 an ounce by
0024 GMT. Platinum and palladium continued to add
to gains on supply fears as strikes in major producer South
Africa dragged on for a 17th week.
* Fed policymakers last month began to lay groundwork for an
eventual retreat from their extraordinarily easy monetary policy
with a discussion of the tools they could employ to accomplish
the task, with no final decisions taken, minutes from the April
policy meeting showed.
* SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed
exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 3.3 tonnes to
776.89 tonnes on Wednesday – the lowest since December 2008. The
outflows are the biggest since April 30.
* India’s central bank eased tough gold import rules on
Wednesday by allowing seven more private agencies to ship the
precious metal, a move that industry officials say could augment
supplies and reduce premiums in the peak wedding season.
* Rio Alto Mining Ltd said it would buy
Sulliden Gold Corp Ltd in a deal valued at about C$300
million ($275 million), creating a gold miner focused on Peru.
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MARKET NEWS
* The dollar gained against the yen for the first time in
six sessions on Wednesday on the Fed minutes, while world stock
markets bounced back from the previous day’s drop.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0145 China HSBC Manufacturing PMI Flash May
0700 France Markit Manufacturing PMI Flash May
0730 Germany Markit Manufacturing PMI Flash May
0800 Euro zone Markit Manufacturing PMI Flash May
1230 U.S. Weekly jobless claims
1230 U.S. National Activity index April
1345 U.S. Markit Manufacturing PMI Flash May
1400 U.S. Existing home sales April
1400 U.S. Leading index April
PRICES AT 0024 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg
Spot gold 1290.4 -1 -0.08
Spot silver 19.3 -0.08 -0.41
Spot platinum 1469.24 4.24 0.29
Spot palladium 825.5 -0.4 -0.05
Comex gold 1290.9 2.8 0.22
Comex silver 19.37 0.032 0.17
Euro 1.3679
DXY 80.093
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the
most active months