Daily Gold Update

Source:Matt Warden, American Gold Exchange

AustinGold rose 0.4% to close at $1,273.30 today. The US Dollar rose in early trade after the US House of Representatives passed a budget resolution late Thursday, which drove the gold price lower, but reports that President Donald Trump has narrowed his search for the next Federal Reserve chairman sent the US Dollar falling and buoyed the gold price into positive territory by the close.

The US House passed the 2018 budget resolution Thursday evening, paving the way for the US Senate to pass the Republican tax-cut package with a simple majority. The US Dollar rallied to a three-month high during morning trade, and gold fell to as low as $1265 in sympathy to the stronger Dollar.

Later, Bloomberg reported that Donald Trump is now leaning towards nominating Jerome Powell as the next Fed chair. Powell is seen as "dovish" by investors, as he has backed a gradual approach to raising interest rates and is seen as more sympathetic to the White House's stance on bank deregulation. The news pared gains in the US Dollar and boosted gold back over the $1270 mark.

In other news, US GDP for the third quarter of 2017 was estimated at 3.0% by the BEA, supporting the expectation of a quarter-point increase in the Federal Funds rate at the December FOMC interest rate setting policy meeting.

The other precious metals were mostly unchanged, with silver adding 0.2%, platinum losing 0.4%, and palladium losing 0.03%.

At the Comex close: December gold added $5.30 to $1,273.3; December silver gained 4 cents to $16.84; January platinum lost $3.80 to $916.60; and December palladium dropped $0.35 to $965.85 an ounce.