Bullion prices ended the U.S. day session modestly higher on Tuesday, 24 March 2015. Gold futures scored a fifth straight session of gains on Tuesday, with European jitters and worries about a potentially overheated equity market helping to lift prices to their highest level in nearly three weeks. Gold prices hit a 2.5-week high on Tuesday. A weakening of the U.S. dollar index recently has worked in favor of the precious metals bulls, although the dollar index posted slight gains on Tuesday. Gold prices did downtick following the U.S. consumer price index report that came in just a bit hotter than expected on Tuesday. That gave the U.S. dollar index a boost prompted scattered ideas that the Fed could move to raise interest rates sooner.
Gold for April delivery rose $3.70, or 0.3%, to settle at $1,191.40 an ounce on Comex — the highest settlement for a most-active contract since 5 March 2014.
May silver advanced 9.2 cents, or 0.5%, to $16.983 an ounce.
There was a downbeat economic report coming out of China Tuesday. The preliminary HSBC China manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) had a reading of 49.2 in March versus 50.7 in February. The March number is an 11-month low. A number below 50.0 suggests contraction in the sector. Since China is a major raw commodity importer, this news is a bearish underlying factor for the raw commodity sector.
Meantime, the European Union reported an upbeat PMI number. The Markit PMI came in at 54.1 in March versus 53.3 in February. The new orders segment of that report showed the largest rise in four years. This news helped the Euro currency continue its rebound versus the U.S. dollar.
In USA, data on Tuesday showed the U.S. consumer-price index climbed in February for the first time in four month. The February CPI was up 0.2% from January versus pre-report expectations for a reading of up 0.1%. The core CPI index was up 1.7%, year-on-year. However, overall, the CPI data is not real worrisome to inflation hawks and gold prices worked back higher during the trading session.