Investing.com - Gold prices inched higher on Friday, as investors braced for the outcome of the French presidential election but expectations that President Trump’s tax reform plan will be implemented sooner rather than later weighed on upside momentum.
Gold for June delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $4.70, or 0.37%, to $1,288.50 a troy ounce by 13:40 EDT.
Investors opted for caution ahead of the French presidential election, as opinion polls indicated centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron holds a slender lead over far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
According to Opinion-Orpi’s daily poll of voting intentions, centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron would garner 23% of the vote while Marine Le pen would garner 22%.
Meanwhile, investors mulled over comments from U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, after he said Thursday, the Trump administration is ‘close’ to bringing forward tax reform.
Bullish expectations concerning Trump’s tax reform plan, which is viewed as a pro-growth policy, had fuelled the recent post-election “Trump rally”.
Elsewhere, bullish economic data, showed sales of previously owned homes in the U.S. hit a ten-year high in March.
The National Association of Realtors said Friday, existing home sales rose 4.4% in March from the previous month to an annualised pace of 5.71m units, which confounded economists’ estimates of a 2.5% gain.
Gold was the one of the few commodities set for a positive close on Friday, as silver futures fell 0.65% to $17.90 a troy ounce while copper traded flat at $2.541.
Platinum lost 0.28% to $978.45 while Natural Gas dipped by 1.55% to $3.110.