Gold, silver and platinum give up gains, FTSE 100 set to slide in early trade
Overview: the FTSE 100 is set to give back some of the gains it logged yesterday, lifted by a strong performance in the US stock market where the main key indices rose by more than 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.3%, the broader S&P 500 index was up 1.4%, while the technology heavy Nasdaq composite also added 1.4%. The markets got a boost from yesterday’s home sales update, which revealed a jump in the sales of previously owned US homes to their highest in two and a half years.
Asian markets were mixed today. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.2%, Japan’s Nikkei hit another four month closing low after shedding 1%. However, China’s Shanghai composite index inched higher 0.1%.
Commodities also were buoyant after President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis James Bullard said that government should continue buying mortgage-backed securities beyond Q1 2010, which weakened the US dollar.
However, oil and metal prices declined overnight and stood below yesterday’s levels this morning.
January Brent Crude slid to US$77.15/barrel, while US light, sweet crude for January delivery retreated to US$77.08/barrel.
Precious metals also eased with gold moving down to US$1,161/oz, while silver and platinum slid to US$18.44/oz and US$1,446/oz respectively.
Base metals followed with copper and nickel sliding to US$3.09/lb and US$7.48/lb, while zinc retreated to US$1/lb.
More data is due to come out today with investors expecting November consumer confidence update and the FHFA home prices index.
The FTSE 100 is projected to shed 40 points in early trade today as investors will be reaping profits after yesterday’s rally in anticipation of more data form the US, while commodity focused stocks will be hit by lower oil and metal prices. The blue chip index ended the day with a nearly 2% gain. Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) led the blue chips with a 5% advance, while inter-dealer money broker ICAP (LSE: IAP) and silver miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) followed with gains of about 4.5%. Just two FTSE 100 constituents lost 1% or more as oil company Petrofac (LSEL PFC) and packaging group Bunzl (LSE: BNZL) declined 1.2%.
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