ArcelorMittal blames EU policy gaps for green plans delay
The world’s second-largest steelmaker said further steps are contingent on favourable policy, technological progress, and market conditions.
The slide in gold futures continued in afternoon trading on Wednesday amid a broad sell-off in commodities as worries over the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis that now included a strong possibility that Greece would fall out of the union and the global economic outlook intensified.
Gold for June delivery was off $14.30, or 0.91%, to $1,589.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange by mid-afternoon after briefly dipping below $1,580 an ounce shortly after the open.
Gold is now down almost 17% from its all-time record high of $1,911.60 an ounce set on September 6 last year.
News out yesterday that gold imports to China from Hong Kong were up 59% in March, according to the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department did little to encourage buying of the precious metal that is now trading at its lowest level since late December 2011.
Strong central bank buying over the same month that showed at this rate central banks will buy almost 700 tonnes of gold this year also did not soothe gold investors’ fears about industry fundamentals.
Bullion bulls are now focusing on any news from US monetary authorities about further policy easing. After failing to scale the psychologically important $1,800 an ounce bar at the end of February, gold has taken a few hard knocks on the way to the $1,500s.
The spikes downward have all been thanks to Ben Bernanke and the US Federal Reserve and the fortunes of the precious metal seem increasingly linked to monetary policy in the US. If there is word of a third round of quantitative easing it could be very positive for gold.
(And for Bill Gross, founder of Pimco which oversees more than a $1 trillion in assets, who have placed a $133 billion bet that QE3 will happen.)
