Gold prices dip. Pessimism or Columbus Day quiet?

Gold prices fell on Monday as concerns over the global economic outlook and its impact on the coming corporate earnings season weighed on investor sentiment. But national holidays in the US and Japan were expected to limit trading activity and may have been partially responsible for the dip in gold prices.

|
Mike Groll/AP/File
Gold bars are seen at the US Mint at West Point in West Point, N.Y.,in this May 2012 file photo.Gold prices edged down 0.02 percent Monday.

European stocks, oil and gold prices fell on Monday as concerns over the global economic outlook and its impact on the coming corporate earnings season weighed on investor sentiment.

The World Bank cut its estimate for East Asian growth including for China, and this has undone some of the positive sentiment that followed Friday's sharp drop in U.S. unemployment for September.

"The big bogeyman in the closet is China and everyone is trying to guesstimate if it's going to have a hard landing or a soft landing," said Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets in Brussels.

However, national holidays in Japan and the United States on Monday were expected to limit trading activity.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 was down 0.7 percent at 1,103.51 points in early trade with the German DAX down 0.8 percent despite data showing an unexpected jump in German exports during August.

Seasonally adjusted exports jumped 2.4 percent month-on-month, far outperforming expectations for a drop of 0.5 percent and beating even the highest forecast in a Reuters poll of 17 economists for a 0.5 percent rise.

"It is incredible how German exports are winning in such a tough environment," said DekaBank economist Andreas Scheuerle.

The signs of strength in Europe's biggest economy failed to help to the euro which was down 0.4 percent at $1.2975.

The fragile economic outlook saw Brent crude for November delivery fall 90 cents at $111.12 a barrel, while the gold price edged down 0.2 percent to $1,777.89 an ounce.

In Europe investors are also focused on a meeting of euro zone finance ministers later. They will formally launch the region's new permanent bailout fund and are expected to discuss the problems facing Spain and Greece.

But they are not expected to make major progress in solving the debt crisis so German government bond futures were ticking higher in early trade.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Gold prices dip. Pessimism or Columbus Day quiet?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1008/Gold-prices-dip.-Pessimism-or-Columbus-Day-quiet
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe