Gold down on technical bounce

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell on Wednesday as a technical bounce put pressure on the precious metal after it neared a 15-month high.

The most active gold contract for June delivery declined 17.40 U.S. dollars, or 1.35 percent, to settle at 1,274.40 dollars per ounce.

The feature of the day has been a technical bounce as the precious metal hit a key support level and moved lower sharply, according to analysts.

The U.S.-based Automated Data Processing employment report released on Wednesday showed an expectation for private payrolls to rise by a mere 156,000, which was much-worse-than-expected. Analysts noted that the pace of good employment news has been high recently, and that investors were expecting for jobs data to soften eventually, so this may not have as much of an impact on gold as if it had happened without the context of historically strong employment data.

The precious metal was given support as a report released by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Wednesday showed the international trade gap decreasing to 40.4 billion U.S. dollars, which would normally be a positive sign, but in this case analysts noted that imports fell by 3.6 percent during the month of March, which they believe is indicative of weaker domestic demand as consumer goods are showing weakness.

As for the other precious metals on Wednesday, silver for July delivery shed 19.80 cents, or 1.13 percent, to close at 17.301 dollars per ounce. Platinum for July delivery fell 16.00 dollars, or 1.49 percent, to close at 1,055.60 dollars per ounce. Endit