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Gold steady as US economy disappoints

Published: 10:45 01 Aug 2016 EDT

picture of gold pour

Gold consolidated after the good gains seen last week when attention squarely returned on the financial system and the world’s economic problems.

A poor read for the US economy’s GDP in the second quarter underpinned the metal’s appeal as more commentators now suggest there will not now be a US rate rise until December.

The US economy grew by 1.2% against forecasts of 2.6% growth, with the first quarter’s growth revised down to 0.8%.

The dollar tumbled again, which usually is good news for the gold price.

All attention in the US now turns to the non-farm payroll number on Friday.

Banks coming under scrutiny again also helped gold last week, but some of the pressure eased as most of Europe's comfortably came through their latest stress tests.

Designed to measure how well the banks would cope in much worse condition than currently, only one bank, Italy's Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, posted a negative number with the majority showing better resilience than in 2014.

A couple of hours into US trading, spot gold was trading US$2 lower at US$1,349, platinum was US$5 higher at US$1,150 with silver up a shade at US$20.4.

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