WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold prices gave back ground on Wednesday as investors opted for booking taking from the past two days of gains and pushed the geopolitical concerns that helped gold rally to the backburner. Multiple economic reports from the U.S. also drew the attention of traders.
Front Month Comex Gold for January delivery slid by $32.90 (or 0.73%) to $4,449.30 per troy ounce.
Front Month Comex Silver for January delivery slumped by $3.3950 (or 4.22%) to $77.135 per troy ounce.
The geopolitical events in the recent weeks that drove market participants to safe-haven investments continue to simmer. Still, investors went ahead to book profits and adopted a wait-and-watch approach today.
Last Saturday, directed by U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. forces stormed into Venezuela, raided the fortress of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, captured Maduro and his wife, and transferred both to the U.S. to face drug-trafficking charges. Soon, Trump announced that the U.S. will be 'running' Venezuela until a smooth regime change happens.
Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez is now serving as the acting president of Venezuela.
Trump wants to exploit the oil wealth of Venezuela and is set to meet executives from American oil majors - Exxon, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips - this Friday to discuss the path ahead.
Energy experts have observed that it will take a decade's time and several billion dollars in investments to resurrect the heavily damaged oil infrastructures in Venezuela.
Further, Trump announced that Venezuela will be transferring around 30-50 million barrels of high quality, 'sanctioned' oil, to the U.S. and that the U.S. will sell its at market prices and control the proceeds. However, Trump did not outline the timeline.
Venezuela's crude is very 'heavy' and cannot be stored for extended periods.
Russia celebrates Christmas on January 7. In his Christmas address, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Russian invasion of Ukraine his 'Holy Mission.'
Ukraine and its European allies conducted peace talks in Paris, France, yesterday with two U.S. envoys present to take the U.S. proposed peace talks further.
Putting up a united front against Russia, the U.K. and France have committed to provide troops in Ukraine if a ceasefire materializes.
In Iran, angered over increasing inflation and the fall of the Iranian Rial, tens of thousands of people are demonstrating on the streets, leading to clashes between security forces and the crowd. Concerns of U.S. intervention have grown which could exacerbate the crisis.
On Monday, Israel conducted aerial attacks in southern and eastern Lebanon, targeting multiple infrastructures of Hezbollah and Hamas militant groups.
In the U.S, data released by Automatic Data Processing revealed that private sector employment increased by 41,000 jobs in December.
While small establishments added 9,000 jobs and medium companies added 34,000 jobs, large companies added only 2,000 jobs.
Institute for Supply Management data for December revealed that its services PMI increased to 54.4 points. The business activity index climbed to 56.0 and the employment index jumped to 52.0.
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data by the U.S. Labor Department showed that job openings decreased to 7,146,000 in November from 7,449,000 in October.
In the U.S., the Federal Reserve's FOMC meets this month-end to decide and announce new interest rates.
Yesterday in an interview with FOX Business, Fed Governor Stephen Miran observed that he sees a need for a significant lowering of rates as the unemployment rate is creeping up gradually and added that the current policy is 'restrictive' and could hold back economic growth.
CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating that investors are betting on just a 11.6% chance of a quarter point interest rate cut at the meeting.
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