Gold futures held onto their gains Wednesday afternoon despite encouraging economic news from the Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book.
COMEX gold for February delivery settled higher by $8.10, or 0.5%, at $1,639.60 per ounce, and the yellow metal later climbed to $1,642.00 in electronic trading.
The Beige Book, which is made up economic reports from each regional branch of the Fed, noted that “the reports on balance suggest ongoing improvement in economic conditions in recent months, with most Districts highlighting more favorable conditions than identified in reports from the late spring through early fall.”
Other highlights from the Beige Book included:
- Consumer spending picked up in most Districts, reflecting significant gains in holiday retail sales compared with last year’s season, and activity in the travel and tourism sector expanded in most areas
- Demand strengthened further for nonfinancial services, including professional and transportation services
- Manufacturing activity generally continued to expand, although the pace of growth has slowed for selected subsectors such as technology products
- Activity stayed sluggish in residential real estate markets, and conditions in commercial real estate markets remained somewhat soft overall but showed signs of ongoing improvement in several Districts
- Reports from financial institutions generally indicated a slight uptick in loan demand by businesses, along with improvements in overall credit quality
The full version of the Fed’s Beige Book is available at the link below:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/fomc/beigebook/2012/20120111/default.htm
Premier Gold Expands High-Grade Zones at Trans-Canada Project
- Four zones are currently being drilled including the HGN, F2, North Shear and Key Lake (West Extension)
- The HGN and F2 zones are located proximal to the historic mine workings and remain open both up and down plunge
- The North Shear is a new discovery located between the Hardrock and Little Long Lac Mines and the West Extension target is a high grade target along strike from the Key Lake deposit that was acquired through Premier's acquisition of Goldstone Resources earlier in 2011
- These zones have characteristics similar to the high-grade past producing Little Long Lac (600,000 ounces gold produced at a grade of 11.7 grams per tonne) and Leitch (847,900 ounces produced at a grade of 31.5 grams per tonne) Gold Mines that are located on the Trans-Canada Project
