The yellow metal continued its fall on Friday after incurring the largest one-day loss since 2008 the previous day on fears in markets that enhanced demand on the dollar.

Yesterday, gold shed $46.10 or 4.16% to close at $1063.47 an ounce. Gold Price was set in London on Thursday at $1083.25 per ounce during the PM fixing declining from $1102.50 at the AM fixing. SPDR gold trust, the world's largest exchange-traded fund backed by bullion, remained at 1,110.34 metric tons on February 4.

Gold prices fell tremendously yesterday on concerns in markets with regard debt woes in European economies. Speculations that Greece, Spain, and Portugal will not be able to rein in budget deficit are raising concerns and negatively impacting the euro. Trichet mentioned yesterday that European economies will suffer from rising budget deficit this year.

The ECB left the interest rate unchanged at its low rate of 1% and announced they will end the 6-month tender in March. Exiting stimulus measures gradually along with volatility in activities may curb inflation in the coming period which will adversely affect the gold as a hedge against inflation.

On the other hand, the dollar bounced the previous day as fears and downbeat earnings by some companies made investors resort to safe-haven assets such as yen and dollar and leave risky assets, which caused European stocks to close at the lowest level in 2 months, following sharp losses in the U.S.

Today, the dollar is continuing its advance against majors ahead of the release of the U.S. jobs report later on today. The dollar index, which tracks the dollar movements versus a basket of major currencies, jumped to 80.39, breaching strong resistance level at 80.07 and continuing its rally that started in December.

Consequently, gold and other dollar-denominated commodities are still impacted by the firm dollar. The shiny metal is currently traded at $1051.19 from the day's opening at $1063.42, where the metal can gain support at $1042.00 then $1037.00, while oil slumped to $72.60 a barrel from the day's opening at $72.97.

With regard to other precious metals, platinum edged down to $1472.00 from the opening at $1486.50, whereas palladium plunged to $381.00 from $394.20.

Ecpulse

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