UNITED STATES May 14 2015 11:37 AM
NEW YORK (Scrap Register): United States scrap gold prices continued to rise on Wednesday in line with futures prices at New York Mercantile Exchange logged their highest settlement in almost six weeks after weaker-than-expected U.S. retail sales helped pressure the dollar and raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will push back plans for an interest-rate hike.

The major gold scrap commodities on the Scrap Register Price Index showed an up trend on Wednesday. The 9ct hallmarked gold scrap prices gained to $433.408 an ounce and 14ct hallmarked gold scrap prices rose to $676.117 an ounce. The 18ct hallmarked gold scrap and 22ct hallmarked gold scrap prices also advanced to $ 866.816 ounce and $1058.672 an ounce respectively.

As per Scrap Register Price Index, the 9ct non-hallmarked gold scrap prices advanced to $409.95 an ounce and 14ct non-hallmarked gold scrap prices up at $639.523 an ounce on Wednesday. The 18ct non-hallmarked gold scrap and 22ct non-hallmarked gold scrap prices are also traded up to $819.901 an ounce and $1001.372 an ounce respectively.

The most active June gold contract on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled up $24 an ounce at $1,216 an ounce on Wednesday.

US retail sales for April came in unchanged from March, when a 0.2% rise was expected. The retail sales report is one of the most important U.S. economic data points of the month. The weaker data once again calls into question when the Federal Reserve can begin to raise U.S. interest rates.

The US dollar index slumped on the retail sales news and hit a four-month low. The other key outside market was also in a bullish posture for the precious metals Wednesday as crude oil prices were higher and are hovering near a five-month high.