Gold / Silver / Copper futures - weekly outlook: January 27 - 31

Investing.com - Gold futures ended Friday’s session at a nine-week high, as steep losses in U.S. equities and emerging market currencies boosted the safe haven appeal of the precious metal.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for February delivery hit a session high of USD1,273.20 a troy ounce on Friday, the strongest level since November 20, before trimming gains to settle at USD1,264.30, up 0.16%.

Comex gold prices rallied 1.91% on Thursday to settle at USD1,262.30 a troy ounce as investors fleeing risk in emerging markets saw gold as an attractive venue.

Gold futures were likely to find support at USD1,230.80 a troy ounce, the low from January 23 and near term resistance at USD1,275.70, the high from November 20.

On the week, the February Comex gold contract added 1.67%, the fifth consecutive weekly increase and the longest run of weekly gains in 16 months.

A broad based selloff in financial markets Friday spurred safe haven demand, prompting investors to move money out of equities and into gold. U.S. stocks suffered their worst week since 2011, with the Dow plunging 318 points on Friday.

Market sentiment was hit by concerns over a slowdown in China after data on Thursday showed that the preliminary reading of the HSBC manufacturing index fell to a six-month low in January.

Meanwhile, a selloff in emerging markets accelerated on Friday, after the Turkish lira fell to the latest in a series of record lows against the dollar. South Africa’s rand, the Russian ruble and the Argentine peso all fell to multi-year lows against the greenback.

Emerging market currencies have been hard hit since the Federal Reserve announced plans last month to begin scaling back its asset purchase program.

Data from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission released Friday showed that hedge funds and money managers raised their bullish bets in gold futures in the week ending January 21.

Gross long gold positions declined by 179 contracts to 113,823, while gross short positions fell by 255 lots to 70,470. Net longs totaled 43,353 contracts, compared to 43,277 in the preceding week.

In the week ahead, Wednesday’s outcome of the Federal Reserve’s monthly meeting will be in focus amid expectations for a reduction to USD65 billion from the current USD75 billion in the bank’s stimulus program.

The policy-meeting will mark the last for outgoing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, as current Vice Chair Janet Yellen prepares to take over.

In addition, the initial estimate of U.S. fourth quarter gross domestic product is reported on Thursday.

Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for March delivery ended Friday’s session down 1.22% to close the week at USD19.76 a troy ounce. The March silver futures contract lost 2.66% on the week.

Meanwhile, copper for March delivery slumped to a daily low of USD3.260 a pound on Friday, the weakest since December 11, before trimming losses to end at USD3.271 a pound, down 0.43%.

Prices of the industrial metal dropped 1.54% on Thursday to settle at USD3.285 a pound as downbeat manufacturing data out of China fuelled concerns over the strength of the world’s second largest economy and biggest consumer of the industrial metal.

Comex copper prices declined 2.18% on the week.