Gold prices-Gold drifted in a tight range on Wednesday, holding overnight losses, as investors awaited cues from the dollar and oil markets in thin pre-holiday trade. U.S. home resales posted their sharpest drop in five years in November. Other data on Tuesday showed the U.S. economy grew at a fairly healthy clip in the third quarter as strong consumer and business spending offset efforts by businesses to reduce an inventory glut. Trading is expected to be quiet as liquidity thins ahead of the Christmas holiday. Japanese markets were closed on Wednesday.
MCX Copper Tips-Trading in base metal market will be light Wednesday as Christmas holiday is right around the corner, Shanghai Metals Market predicts. Major economic indicators scheduled for release today include US crude oil inventories, new home sales and PCE price index, which are expected to be mixed. This will trigger market speculations at what pace the Fed will raise its interest rate in the future, but will give little effect on base metals. As investors leave the market ahead of the Christmas holiday, trading will mute, leaving base metals prices in check. US Nov., PCE price index is expected to improve. US November core CPI met Fed’s target, excluding food and crude oil.
Crude oil prices-U.S. crude prices briefly rose to a premium over internationally traded Brent on Wednesday following a report of a surprise dip in U.S. inventories and the potential for more exports in an oil market which still suffers from ballooning oversupply. We see risks to our OPEC production forecast of 32 million bpd next year as skewed to the upside storage continues to fill with the potential for hitting storage constraints by the spring rising," Goldman Sachs said this week, adding that U.S. drilling activity also remained too high for a significant production cut.
