KUALA LUMPUR: Gold futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is expected to trade lower next week, as growing optimism over the global economic recovery will curb demand for the precious metal, said Phillip Futures Sdn Bhd dealer Ong Su Ling.
“A slew of economic data from the US and China released last week indicated that the global economy is on the path of recovery and this will make gold an unattractive safe-haven asset,” she told Bernama.
On Thursday, the US Labor Department announced that the initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 192,000 for the week ended April 13, the lowest level since September 1969.
Meanwhile, the Markit and Caixin Purchasing Managers’ Indices for the US and China, respectively, show the percentage of respondents whose business are expanding.
The US Markit stayed unchanged at 52.4 from last month’s reading, while China Caixin rose to its four-month low of 54.4 in March from 51.1 in the previous month.
For the week just ended, the gold futures market started on a weak momentum as progress in the US-China trade talks lifted risk sentiment, taking the sheen off safe-haven bullion.
The local market was unchanged from Wednesday onwards as the anticipation of better economic growth continued to weigh on gold futures.
The gold futures market movement was also influenced by the benchmark US Commodity Exchange’s (Comex) gold futures performance, the ringgit versus US dollar, as well as crude oil prices.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, April 2019, May 2019, June 2019 and July 2019 were 30 ticks lower each at RM170.00, RM170.00, RM169.90 and RM170.00 a gramme, respectively.
Weekly turnover was nil compared with 13 lots worth RM222,480 last week, while open interest remained unchanged at 34 contracts.- Bernama
