17th April 2017

After several days of good gains, including a push to a five-month high of $1297/ounce at one point on Monday, gold ran into a round of profit-taking late in the day and ended the US session with a modest loss of $3/ounce. Part of the pressure emanated from a 180-point surge in the US stock market (basis the Dow) as beaten-down bank and tech shares lifted equities off two-month lows. Q1 Earnings now get into full gear, with profits at S&P-500 companies expected to rise by 10.4%, the first double-digit increase since Q3 of 2014, this according to Thomson-Reuters.