Off the wire
• Botswana gov't applauds Chinese medical team's contribution  • Albanian border police detain 37 illegal immigrants  • Two Rwandan police officers get 20 years sentence for murder  • BiH adpots decision to destroy excess weapons  • China donates office equipment to Serbia  • Germany's benchmark DAX touches new record high  • South Africa police arrest 68 people for suspected involvement in violence  • Bulgaria wants to reduce arms dependence on Russia: president  • Urgent: Gold rebounds as ECB launches bond-buying program  • 2nd LD: Yemeni parliament rejects president Hadi's resignation  
You are here: 　 Home

1st LD Writethru: Gold rebounds as ECB launches bond-buying program

Xinhua, January 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose on Thursday as the European Central Bank introduced a 1-trillion-euro quantitative easing program to bolster the eurozone economy.

The most active gold contract for February delivery rose 7.0 U. S. dollars, or 0.54 percent, to settle at 1,300.70 dollars per ounce.

The ECB plan will lead to the central bank purchasing bonds from March 2015 until the end of September 2016 and will result in the release of 60 billion euros per month into the economy through quantitative easing.

Worries about the weakening eurozone caused traders to react negatively to the ECB's plan for the region, driving them to move assets out to safe havens like gold.

Further boosting gold is the upcoming Greek election on Sunday, in which polls show that the anti-bailout party is likely to win.

However, the number of Americans initially applying for unemployment aid fell last week from a seven-month high, analyst said this added pressure for gold to go up higher. U.S. Labor Department said Thursday that in the week ending Jan. 17, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits edged down to 307,000 after hitting a seven-month high of 317,000 in the prior week.

Silver for March delivery increased 16.7 cents, or 0.92 percent, to close at 18.36 dollars per ounce. Platinum for April delivery lost 8.4 dollars, or 0.66 percent, to close at 1,284.80 dollars per ounce. Endite