Gold And Mining Firms Hold Firm After Yellen Signals Rates May Rise - Investor's Business Daily

Gold And Mining Firms Hold Firm After Yellen Signals Rates May Rise - Investor's Business Daily

Mining ETFs firmed Friday as gold bugs digested hawkish comments by Fed Chair Janet Yellen in Wyoming. In her keenly awaited speech, Yellen signaled the case for raising interest rates has "strengthened in recent months" and cited strength in the labor market.

Exchange traded funds tracking the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq 100 indexes nudged higher as investors cheered Yellen's confident remarks, but are eyeing a weekly loss.

SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) popped 0.6% in morning trade on the stock market today. The commodity ETF, which invests in physical bullion, sliced above its 50-day moving average intraday to recover almost all its losses so far this week.

Gold prices were modestly higher in early U.S. trading Friday, on some short covering after recent selling pressure and on position evening ahead of Yellen's speech, according to Kitco News. After her remarks, the precious metal dipped briefly but then traded higher. Higher rates usually tend to weigh on gold, a nonyielding safe-haven asset.

VanEck Vectors Gold Miners (GDX) jumped 1.9% in early trading.

PureFunds ISE Junior Silver (SILJ) vaulted 5.4%.

Mining funds are among the year's best-performing ETFs, with SILJ leading peers with an eye-popping 222.5% gain.

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IBD'S TAKE: The gold, silver and gem mining industry group has outpaced 196 peers this year. To find out if your ETF holds the best stocks from this best industry group, check out IBD Stock Checkup.

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All the S&P 500 sectors held higher following Yellen's remarks, led by materials.

12 Bellwether ETFs

Here's how major exchange traded funds across major asset classes are performing today, with IBD Relative Price Strength Ratings.

The RS Rating is a measure of a stock's price performance over the last 12 months, compared with all stocks and ETFs, on a scale of 1 to a best-possible 99.

Following daily ETF market action can be key to successful investing:

SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), +0.2%, RS 53

PowerShares QQQ (QQQ), +0.2%, RS 57

SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA), +0.2%, RS 49

IShares Core S&P Mid-Cap (IJH), +0.3%, RS 61

IShares Russell 2000 (IWM), +0.3%, RS 64

IShares MSCI EAFE (EFA), +0.2%, RS 29

Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets (VWO), +0.4%, RS 72

SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), +0.6%, RS 72

United States Oil (USO), +0.2%, RS 19

IShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond (AGG), +0.2%, RS 35

PowerShares DB U.S.$ Bullish (UUP), -0.2%, RS 24

IPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures (VXX), -1.0%, RS 1

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