Credit: Investing.com -
Investing.com - Gold prices fell in early Asia on Thursday as Greece appeared to be without a deal in hand to enable it to make sovereign debt payment at the end of the month.
Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras ended talks with key European leaders in Brussels Wednesday without solid progress towards reaching an agreement with international creditors.
The meeting included Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's President Francois Hollande in an effort to broker a political solution to present to the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.
"We agreed to intensify the efforts in order to bridge the gaps and proceed to a solution," Tsipras told journalists as he left the Summit. "I think the EU leadership realizes that they must agree to a viable solution, and the possibility for Greece to return to social cohesion with security and growth but also with a sustainable debt."
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold for August delivery fell 0.08% to $1,185.60 a troy ounce.
Silver for July delivery rose 0.15% to $15.983 a troy ounce.
Copper for July delivery gained 0.05% to $2.744 a pound.
Overnight, gold futures posted significant gains on Wednesday extending a recent rally, as unconfirmed reports surfaced of a potential breakthrough in negotiations between Greece and its international creditors.
The precious metal pared earlier gains amid positive developments in Greek debt talks. In Brussels, Bloomberg reported that Germany chancellor Angela Merkel is prepared to offer an incremental deal to Greece if the cash-strapped nation is committed to accepting some of the reforms proposed by its creditors last week. The reforms include: a higher imposition of taxes, the issuance of less generous retirement benefits to municipal workers and increased state asset sales, according to reports. Merkel could be satisfied with a deal if Greece commits to at least one of the aforementioned reforms.
In exchange for the austerity measures, the plan reportedly calls for Greece to receive a small disbursement of the remaining €7.2 billion of a €240 billion bailout. The staggered aid package could be enough for Greece to meet a €1.5 billion obligation to the International Monetary Fund at the end of the month.
It is unknown if the disbursement will be enough to cover separate obligations to the IMF and the European Central Bank later this summer. Greece owes a €0.5 billion loan repayment to the IMF in mid-July, followed by a €3.5 billion payment to the ECB a week later. At the start of August, Greece owes a modest €0.2 billion repayment to the IMF before another payment of more than €3.0 billion is due to the ECB at the end of the month.
Gold is viewed as a safe-haven for investors in periods of severe economic instability.
Investing.com offers an extensive set of professional tools for the financial markets.
Read more News on Investing.com and download the new Investing.com apps for Android and iOS!
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
