AGE Daily Gold Update

AGE Daily Gold Update presents a recap on today's action in the precious metals markets. View archives.

1/13/2022: Gold slips on profit-taking

Source: Bill Musgrave, American Gold Exchange

Austin — Gold slipped 0.3% to close under $1,822 after the producer price index came in below expectations, dulling demand for inflation hedges and prompting traders to take profits from the metal’s four-day rally.

As measured by the PPI, US wholesale price rose just 0.2% in December for the smallest increase in 13 months. The reading was half of most forecasts and suggests inflation may be finally starting to ebb after many months of acceleration.

The cost of goods, both finished and partly finished, fell for the first time since April 2020. Raw-materials prices shrank for the first time in eight months; energy prices dropped 3.3%; and the wholesale cost of food fell 0.6%.

In other economic data, first-time jobless claims jumped to the highest level since mind-November last week, pushing 23,000 higher to 230,000.

The dollar pulled back another 0.1% against major rivals, falling to a fresh two-month low as traders speculated that rising layoffs and easing wholesale inflation may reduce the Fed’s urgency to tighten monetary policy as aggressively has the market has already priced in.

Gold rallied more than 2% in the previous four sessions on demand for long-term stores of value during the strongest period of inflation in 40 years.

The other precious metals were also lower, with silver dipping 0.2% while platinum and palladium fell 0.8% and 1.4%, respectively.

At the Comex close: February gold slipped $5.90 to $1,821.40; March silver dropped a nickel to $23.16; April platinum slid $9.70 to $972.20; and March palladium lost $25 to 1,890 an ounce.