Gold Prices Extend Loss As U.S. April Retail Sales Rise 0.3%
(Kitco News)- Gold futures extended overnight losses after a CommerceDepartment report Tuesday showing U.S. April retail sales rose by 0.3% to$497.6 billion.
Meanwhile, sales excluding autos were alsoup 0.3%.
Going into the report, consensusexpectations compiled by news organizations had been for a rise 0.3% in overallsales. Sales excluding autos were forecast to be up 0.5% or 0.6%.
As of 8:42 a.m. EDT, Comex June gold was down $15.60 to $1,302.60 anounce. Five minutes before reports on retail sales and the Empire Statemanufacturing survey, the metal was at $1,305.90.
Gold came into the New York trading dayon the defensive, with overseas analysts blaming the losses on the strongerU.S. dollar amid recently rising Treasury yields.
March retail sales were revised upwardto a gain of 0.8% from the previously reported rise of 0.6%.
“U.S. retail sales made a solid butunspectacular start to Q2,” says AndrewGrantham of CBIC Economics. “The0.3% gain in headline sales was in line with consensus expectations, although atwo-tick upward revision to the prior month (now +0.8%) added a somewhat positivetone.”
Grantham commented that colder-than-normalweather in parts of the U.S. did not appear to materially dampen sales, asclothing (up 1.4%) and building materials (up 0.4%) sales were both higher.
“Overall, these are solid figures,particularly given the upward revision to March, which supports our forecastthat consumer spending is accelerating again in Q2 after a sluggish firstquarter,” Grantham said.
April retail sales were up 4.7%year-on-year, while sales excluding autos were up 4.8% from the same month of2017.
Consumer purchases make up the singlelargest component of U.S. gross domestic product, thus market participantsclosely monitor the data as a gauge of the economy.
By Allen SykoraFor Kitco News
Follow @AllenSykora
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