SMM Morning Review - 2012/1/30 Gold & Silver

SHANGHAI, Jan. 30 (SMM) -- COMEX February gold futures opened at USD 1,718/oz and closed at USD 1,733.5/oz on Jan. 27th, up USD 13.6/oz or 0.79% from the previous trading day, and USD 0.5/oz higher than London’s USD 1,655/oz in the morning. Highest and lowest COMEX prices during the day were USD 1,739.8/oz and USD 1,716.5/oz.

COMEX March silver futures opened at USD 33.4/oz and closed at USD 33.89/oz on Jan. 27th, up USD 0.52/oz or 1.56% from the previous trading day, but USD 0.281/oz lower than London’s USD 30.79/oz during the day. Highest and lowest COMEX prices during the day were USD 33.965/oz and USD 33.28/oz.

The US dollar index dropped sharply last Wednesday after Fed pledged to maintain extremely low interest rates. The index shed more losses last Friday after the US GDP data for the fourth quarter came out missing estimates. Fitch Ratings downgraded debt ratings of Belgium, Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Slovenia and maintained negative outlooks for these countries on the same day. This piece of news, however, had exerted little impact on gold and silver, which still closed higher. The market focus today will be the European Union Summit. The extremely loose monetary policies will continue to support the two precious metals, which are expected to see more gains in the near term.