Gold Prices End Lower As Deutsche Bank Rebounds

San Francisco (Oct 1)  Gold prices slid deeper into negative territory Friday as Germany’s biggest bank saw some relief in equity markets.

December gold futures settled today’s session at  $1,317.10 an ounce, down 0.67% on the day and ended both the week and the third quarter with losses. This is the first quarterly loss for gold since the fourth quarter of last year.

According to reports, Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) is seeing a resurgence in its share price, up almost 15% on the day as it is near a settlement deal of $5.4 billion with the U.S. Department of Justice.

The bank still faces a heavy fine for its mortgage lending activities during the housing bubble crash that exacerbated the financial crisis, but the settlement deal is well below the DOJ’s initial demand of $14 billion.

Not only is gold suffering as it looks like the German bank will avoid a Lehman-style collapse but equities are seeing renewed momentum.  The S&P 500 is up 1% on the day, last trading at 2,172; at the same time the Dow Jones Industrial average is also up more than 1%, last trading at 18,343.

Although the reports haven’t been confirmed yet, some analysts are not surprised that the U.S. is caving to market pressure.

“Due to the lessons of the past someone is going to blink and solve this problem,” said Colin Cieszynski, senior markets strategist at CMC Markets Canada. “Nobody wants to see another Lehman.

Cieszynski added that he could see gold sell-off in the near-term as the market has “priced in a certain level of uncertainty.”

 “I don’t think gold is over extended but I don’t think there is enough to push it higher in the near-term,” he said.

Source: KitcoNews