Sensex ends flat ahead of IIP data; Infosys, ITC support

03:50 pm Market closing:
After some smart moves, the market failed to end on strong note. The Sensex ended up 45.12 points at 20758.49, while the Nifty closed at 6171.45, up 3.10 points. About 1030 shares advanced, 1485 shares declined, and 360 shares were unchanged.

Infosys remained star of the day with a gain of 3 percent followed by Wipro and TCS.  ITC supported the market.

However, banks were under constant selling pressure.

03:40 pm Big buy:
Italian defence giant Finmeccanica's troubles in India are deepening, with the New Delhi government seeking repayments worth some 270 million euros over a scrapped helicopter deal, reports Reuters.

The government's demand threatens to complicate efforts by AgustaWestland, a division of cash-strapped Finmeccanica, to mend fences with India, the world's biggest arms buyer.

India last week cancelled a 560-million-euro deal with AgustaWestland for 12 AW101 helicopters over what it termed a breach of integrity relating to alleged corruption.

New Delhi, however, agreed to AgustaWestland's calls for arbitration. It will use this process as part of its push to get back the amount it has already paid, defence ministry officials told Reuters.

03:30 pm Big nod:
South Korean steel maker Posco has received environment clearance for its Rs 52,000 crore steel plant in Odisha, ending an eight-year wait for the project to get off the ground. "Yeah, I have cleared it," new Environment Minister M Veerappa Moily told PTI.

"It (the approval) was given about a week back." The approval comes a week ahead of South Korean President Park Geun Hye's visit to India. The clearance will pave the way for Posco to build the steel plant with an annual production capacity of 12 million tones.

03:15pm Stocks performance
Nifty fell 75 points from day's high and Sensex wiped out 235 points gains from intraday high while Bank Nifty shed 250 points from day's highest point.

Country's largest lenders ICICI Bank and State Bank of India fell 2.5 percent and 2 percent, respectively. Axis Bank fell 1.7 percent while HDFC Bank too shed gains.

Coal India is top loser in the Sensex, falling 3 percent followed by L&T, M&M, Hindalco Industries, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel, Hero Motocorp, NTPC and Cipla with a 1-2 percent loss.

However, Infosys and Wipro maintained their upmove with 3 percent gains while rival TCS rose 1.7 percent.

Index heavyweights ITC and Reliance Industries gained 2.36 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

03:05pm Market cautious ahead of IIP data
The market erased all its gains as investors turned cautious ahead of industrial output data. The Sensex rose 19.06 points to 20,732.43 while the Nifty fell 4.05 points to 6,164.30. Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 1457 to 954 on the BSE.

Industrial production for November will be announced later in the day today.

The IIP is expected to come in at a growth of around 0.6 percent versus a decline of 1.8 percent on a month to month basis. It is expected to be driven by the likes of electricity.

The core sector itself in November - electricity data jumped 5.8 percent on a year on year basis. Manufacturing will be a key factor to watch out for. There was a decline in the previous month versus expectations of a growth. That will be a key factor to watch out for and weakness in consumer goods as well because both durables as well as non-durables contracted in the previous month. So that was a little bit of a dampener.

Mining will continue to be weak but may be the contraction or the scale of contraction of mining will possibly come down in terms of the IIP figure this time around. The range for IIP is all the way to minus 0.8 percent to a growth of 1 percent so it will be interesting to watch for in terms of what it comes out with.

02:58pm Motilal Oswal analyses Infosys earnings
Ashish Chopra, IT analyst at Motilal Oswal Securities said Infosys' revenue was in line but operating profit margin was a positive surprise - and an early indicator of the fruition of management's efforts towards transforming the company to a 'desirable Infosys'.

According to him, company's guidance has been on the conservative side in the past few quarters, and keeping that in mind, 12 percent USD revenue growth for FY14 at the higher end will drive some upgrade in revenues for the next quarter.

"Secondly, 25-26 percent EBIT margin expectation in the medium term is also more reassuring from operating profit margin recovery perspective. The results will likely drive marginal upgrades in earnings," Chopra said.

02:50pm Manappuram Finance on buyers' radar
The stock was locked at 20 percent upper circuit for the second consecutive session on Friday after Reserve Bank of India eased norms for gold loan financing companies.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has upgraded the stock by 2 notches to a buy and raised target price by 91 percent to Rs 25 apiece post RBI's easing of loan-to-value (LTV) norms.

According to the brokerage house, RBI's easing of norms is a big positive that will create a level playing field for the gold loan financing company.

"Return on equities (RoEs) will rise to 12 percent in FY15 and 15 percent in FY16," Bank of America Merrill Lynch report said.

The central bank on Wednesday hiked loan-to-value ratio (LTV) to up to 75 percent for loans against the collateral of gold jewellery from the present limit of 60 percent with immediate effect. Hence, the people seeking loan against gold jewellery can now borrow more money.

02:40pm Technology stocks continue to support
BSE IT Index surged 2 percent after higher-than-expected profitability and operational performance in Q3 reported by erstwhile IT bellwether Infosys.

Infosys rallied 2.5 percent while its closest rivals TCS and Wipro gained 2 percent each.

India's second largest IT services exporter Infosys' adjusted net profit rose 19.4 percent, higher-than-expected, quarter-on-quarter to Rs 2,875 crore in the quarter ended December 2013.

Consolidated revenue increased 0.47 percent sequentially (up 25 percent Y-o-Y), in-line, to Rs 13,026 crore and dollar revenue climbed 1.6 percent Q-o-Q to USD 2,100 million in the quarter gone by.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts had expected adjusted net profit of Rs 2626 crore (reported net profit was expected at Rs 2,752 crore) on revenues of Rs 13,055 crore.

Meanwhile, the IT exporter raised its full year (FY14) dollar revenue guidance to 11.5-12 percent from 9-10 percent earlier, which was largely in-line with analysts' expectations of 11-12 percent.

02:31pm The market lost more than half of its gains in last hour of trade as banks fell after weak asset quality performance of IndusInd Bank during third quarter.

The Sensex rose 79.70 points to 20,793.07, and the Nifty added 13.50 points to 6,181.85. About 1048 shares have advanced, 1334 shares declined, and 372 shares are unchanged.

IndusInd Bank fell 2 percent post earnings while top private sector lender ICICI Bank too dropped 2 percent. State Bank of India was down 0.8 percent and Axis Bank declined 1.35 percent, but HDFC Bank gained 0.5 percent.

Private sector lender IndusInd Bank's third quarter (October-December) net profit rose 29.8 percent, higher-than-expected, year-on-year to Rs 346.9 crore, but asset quality deteriorated.

Gross NPA increased 14.5 percent Q-o-Q (up 48.2 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 625 crore and net NPAs surged 51.4 percent on sequential basis (31.7 percent on yearly basis) to Rs 165 crore in the quarter gone by.

Provisions and contingencies too climbed to Rs 126 crore during October-December period from Rs 88.8 crore in September quarter and Rs 78.68 crore in a year ago period.

2:00 pm Results: Net profit of IndusInd Bank jumped to Rs 346 crore year-on-year in December quarter from Rs 267 crore. Its net interest income rose to Rs 730 crore on yearly basis.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expected strong growth in topline as well as bottomline.

Profit after tax of the bank was expected to grow 21 percent year-on-year to Rs 328 crore and net interest income may rise 23 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 712 crore in the quarter ended December 2013.

1:50 pm Market check: The market is making smart gains led by IT stocks post third quarter results. The Sensex is up 253.35 points or 1.22 percent at 20966.72, and the Nifty surges 69 points or 1.12 percent at 6237.60. About 1249 shares have advanced, 1057 shares declined, and 371 shares are unchanged.

1:40 pm Narayana Murthy's views on results: Infosys , which reported quarterly earnings Friday that beat analysts' expectations, is undergoing a transition and that the organization's focus ahead would be on improving efficiency, the company's executive chairman NR Narayana Murthy said.

In an conference call with analysts, Murthy answered a host of questions relating to the sluggishness in the company's business in the last few years that seen rival TCS leapfrog it by a huge margin in revenue. ''We will see the positive impact of the initiatives we have taken. The company's employees are confident,'' he said, adding that the company was working on improving sales and delivery effectiveness.

1:30 pm FII view: Clive McDonnell, head of emerging-markets equity strategy, Standard Chartered Bank is rather constructive on his outlook for emerging markets equities. He forecasts for the first time in three years that emerging markets (EMs) will outperform developed markets (DMs) in FY14.

Standard Chartered Bank has reduced its India rating from neutral to underweight. But McDonnell says the bank continues to have a positive Sensex target of 22000. The only reason it wants to pull back on India is to fund its increased preference for cyclical economies in North Asia.

He recommends investors to look at sectors such as the consumer discretionary space, telecom space and also selective energy names. He has cut back on allocation towards pharmaceuticals.

IT heavyweights Infosys, Wipro , TCS led market rally as the Sensex is up 180.14 points at 20893.51. The Nifty up 50.30 points at 6218.65.

Shares of Infosys rose 3.6 percent intraday on Friday after it announced December quarter earnings. The stock is just Rs 5.80 away from touching its record high of Rs 3581 (tested on January 4, 2014). Investors are euphoric on the stock as the IT exporter raised its full year (FY14) dollar revenue guidance to 11.5-12 percent from 9-10 percent earlier, which was largely in-line with analysts' expectations of 11-12 percent.

Positive macro data also boost market sentiment as December trade deficit also narrowed to USD 10.14 billion versus USD 17.19 billion in the same month last year.

All eyes are now on industrial production output data for November which is seen growing to 0.6 percent compared with a contraction of 1.8 percent last month.

On the losing side M&M, Coal India , Axis Bank , Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp.

12:55pm Nomura's earnings expectations
Prabhat Awasthi of Nomura said after a sharp rebound in topline growth in the September quarter, sales slowdown is back again in the December quarter.

"The sequential growth in topline for our coverage universe (ex-banks and oil & gas PSUs) has slowed down to 3 percent Q-o-Q. The Y-o-Y sales growth at 12 percent looks more respectable, though it should be seen in the context of a big topline boost to sales growth on account of rupee depreciation," he said.

12:45pm Manappuram Finance up 20% again
Manappuram Finance was locked at 20 percent upper circuit again as Bank of America Merrill Lynch has upgraded the stock by 2 notches to a buy and raised target by 91% to Rs 25/share post RBI's easing of loan-to-value (LTV) norms.

According to the brokerage house, RBI's easing of norms is a big positive that will create a level playing field for the gold loan financing company.

"Return on equities (RoEs) will rise to 12 percent in FY15 and 15 percent in FY16," Bank of America Merrill Lynch report said. The stock was trading at Rs 21.75.

12:35pm Nikkei closes higher
Japan's Nikkei benchmark eked out a slight gain on Friday, though it still suffered its worst weekly loss since October, while Uniqlo clothing chain operator Fast Retailing Co Ltd climbed after its quarterly earnings beat expectations.

The Nikkei ended 0.2 percent higher at 15,912.06 ahead of the release of the US jobs report later in the day.

The benchmark Nikkei was down 2.3 percent this week, marking its biggest weekly decline since the period ended October 25. It surged 57 percent last year to log its best annual rise since 1972, driven by Japan's massive fiscal and monetary stimulus campaign, reports Reuters.

12:20pm Watch out for November IIP data
Industrial production for November will be announced later in the day today.

The IIP is expected to come in at a growth of around 0.6 percent versus a decline of 1.8 percent on a month to month basis. It is expected to be driven by the likes of electricity.

The core sector itself in November - electricity data jumped 5.8 percent on a year on year basis. Manufacturing will be a key factor to watch out for. There was a decline in the previous month versus expectations of a growth. That will be a key factor to watch out for and weakness in consumer goods as well because both durables as well as non-durables contracted in the previous month. So that was a little bit of a dampener.

Mining will continue to be weak but may be the contraction or the scale of contraction of mining will possibly come down in terms of the IIP figure this time around. The range for IIP is all the way to minus 0.8 percent to a growth of 1 percent so it will be interesting to watch for in terms of what it comes out with.

12:10pm Infosys talks to CNBC-TV18
The earnings season kickstarted with better-than-expected numbers from Infosys. The erstwhile IT bellwether reported a 19.4 percent rise in profits in the third quarter and even raised its FY14 revenue guidance .

SD Shibulal, CEO, Infosys said the next fiscal is going to be an "exciting" one as client confidence is seen coming back.

When asked why nine top level executives exited Infosys when the founder has chosen to return, Shibulal chose to answer it with a tactical line: "They have larger aspirations and ambitions," adding management transition has been smooth because of deep leadership pool in the company.

12:00pm Trade deficit data in December and buying in technology stocks post Infosys' Q3 earnings pushed equity benchmarks higher in noon trade.

The Sensex climbed 162.52 points to 20,875.89, and the Nifty rose 43.90 points to 6,212.25. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 1104 to 891 on the BSE.

Infosys is top gainer in the Sensex, rising nearly 3 percent post third quarter earnings while its rival TCS, Wipro and HCL Technologies gained 1.5-2 percent.

Shares of Reliance Industries, ONGC, ITC, Sun Pharma, and Dr Reddy's Labs climbed 1-1.8 percent.

However, private sector lenders ICICI Bank and Axis Bank fell nearly a percent while rival HDFC Bank rose 1 percent.

Mahindra and Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Coal India, Bajaj Auto and Hindalco Industries declined 1-1.5 percent.

The December 2013 trade deficit for India came in at USD 10.14 billion versus USD 17.19 billion in the same month last year.

The reduction was driven by a 15.25 percent fall in imports, which came in at USD 36.49 percent while exports grew at 3.5 percent to USD 26.35 billion.

Economists were expecting deficit to come at a range of USD 9 billion-USD 10.5 billion. Even April-December trade deficit narrowed at USD 110.04 billion as against USD 146.82 billion in a year ago period.

11:50 am Current affairs:Hearing a plea in the 2G scam, the Supreme Court has said that a person can be tried by a court even if he or she is not made an accused or if their name is not in a chargesheet. The court has said that, however, this can be done only if there is evidence against them.

The statement from the Supreme Court could have repercussions for Bharti Cellular CMD Sunil Mittal and Essar's Ruia family in the 2G case. Mittal and the Ruias could potentially be tried in the 2G case.

11:40 am Infosys boardroom: Shibulal said he was witnessing demand coming back from his clients. With 85 percent of the company's revenues coming from clients based in US and Europe, the company should hope the current economic recovery in developed countries would help its revenues (read full interview here .)

''We are seeing confidence coming back in our clients. But we expect [their] budgets to only remain stable from last year. Clients are still focused on cost,'' he said. ''We hope we will be able to build solutions to help reduce their costs.''

The CEO termed the spree of top management exits the company has seen in the past six months as ''normal'' for an organisation as large as Infosys. ''These were great leaders with tremendous skills. They may have had aspirations larger than what Infosys could have offered,'' he said. ''Each of these transitions has been smooth.''

11:30 am Buzzing: Shares in Jubilant FoodWorks down 3 percent after marking their lowest intraday level since November 5 as index provider MSCI excludes the Domino's Pizza franchisee in India from its small cap indexes.

The stock will be excluded from the MSCI global small cap indexes effective on Tuesday, MSCI said in a statement late on Thursday.

The RBI said on Wednesday aggregate net purchases of equity shares in the company by foreign institutional investors had reached the prescribed limit.

11:20 am Trade deficit data: The December 2013 trade deficit narrowed to USD 10.14 billion from USD 17.19 billion in the same month last year. The reduction was driven by a 15.25 percent fall in imports, which came in at USD 36.49 percent while exports grew at 3.5 percent to USD 26.35 billion. Economists were expecting deficit to come at a range of USD 9 billion-USD 10.5 billion.

However, trade deficit grew from USD 9.22 billion on a month-on-month basis.

The market has surged after a bit of struggle in early morning trade. The Sensex is up 165.72 points at 20879.09, and the Nifty gains 46.20 points at 6214.55. About 1133 shares have advanced, 783 shares declined, and 335 shares are unchanged.

Technology stocks boost the indices with Infosys, Wipro and TCS as major gainers in the Sensex. Reliance and Sun Pharma are other gainers.

Shares of Infosys jumped 2 percent intraday on Friday after it announced December quarter earnings. Investors are euphoric on the stock as the IT exporter raised its full year (FY14) dollar revenue guidance to 11.5-12 percent from 9-10 percent earlier, which was largely in-line with analysts' expectations of 11-12 percent.

During the period, its consolidated revenue increased 0.47 percent sequentially (up 25 percent Y-o-Y), in-line, to Rs 13,026 crore and dollar revenue climbed 1.6 percent Q-o-Q to USD 2,100 million in the quarter gone by.

"The year ahead looks exciting for the IT services industry. We believe the global economic environment has improved and clients are gaining confidence to invest in their strategic initiatives," S D Shibulal, CEO and managing director said.

Among the losers are M&M, Coal India , Bajaj Auto , Hindalco and Sesa Sterlite.

10:55am IndusInd Bank up 2% ahead of Q3 earnings
Private sector lender IndusInd Bank will declare its third quarter (October-December) earnings on Friday. According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect strong growth in topline as well as bottomline, but net interest margin may fall in the quarter gone by.

Profit after tax of the bank is expected to grow 21 percent year-on-year to Rs 328 crore and net interest income may rise 23 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 712 crore in the quarter ended December 2013.

Analysts say the loan growth is likely to remain strong at over 20 percent. Brokerage house expect it at around 24 percent.

10:45am Infosys results analysis
Nilesh Shah of Envision Capital says revenue growth was expected to be tepid. According to him, Infosys (Infy) might be one of the few companies with capacity utilization of less than 80 percent. He says above 80 percent, it could lead to margin expansion.

The company's utilization has inched up 1 percent, which is seen as a big positive. Shah says it has the potential to move much higher over the next few quarters as the IT major tries to bag a lot of transformational deals.

Infosys' adjusted net profit rose 19.4 percent , higher-than-expected, quarter-on-quarter to Rs 2,875 crore in the quarter ended December 2013. The company has raised its dollar revenue guidance to 11.5-12 percent from 9-10 percent earlier, in-line with analysts' expectations of 11-12 percent.

He expects the Infosys stock to be in the consolidation zone as the recent highs are likely to act as significant resistance. He feels the Street will be focusing on dollar revenue growth, which is lagging behind its peers.

10:30am Hindalco under pressure
Shares in Industries fall 1.2 percent after its global peer Alcoa Inc , the largest US aluminium producer, reported a massive quarterly loss on Thursday and gave a stagnant outlook on global aluminium demand.

Excluding the impairment charge of USD 1.7 billion on smelter acquisitions and other special items, Alcoa group earnings fell to USD 40 million, falling short of analysts expectations.

Alcoa said it expected global aluminium demand to grow 7 percent in 2014, consistent with its 7 percent growth in 2013.

Analysts tracking the sector say Alcoa's stagnant outlook on global demand for aluminium does not bode well for Hindalco's US subsidiary Novelis Inc, reports Reuters.

10:15am Market Expert
Dipan Mehta, member, BSE & NSE said that Nifty's chart pattern of rising bottoms and rising tops seems to be under threat, which is a worrisome signal, but, one positive is that the participation of retail investors is catching up.

''There is a slight improvement in the average turnover cash market for BSE and NSE by at least about 10-12 percent over the past couple of weeks,'' he added. Global economic turmoil and weak macros at home kept retailers away from the market.

10:01am The market continued to be cautious ahead of November industrial output data due later in the day. Infosys climbed 3 percent post upward revision in full year guidance, but could not propel market sharply higher.

The Sensex rose 36.05 points to 20,749.42, and the Nifty gained 8.65 points at 6,177.

About 617 shares have advanced, 607 shares declined, and 288 shares are unchanged.

India's second largest IT services exporter Infosys reported 19.4 percent growth (higher-than-expected) quarter-on-quarter in net profit at Rs 2,875 crore for the quarter ended December 2013.

"During the quarter, we saw early but promising results of our initiatives to increase efficiency in our operations," Rajiv Bansal, chief financial officer.

The IT exporter raised its full year (FY14) dollar revenue guidance to 11.5-12 percent from 9-10 percent earlier, which was largely in-line with analysts' expectations of 11-12 percent.

IIP and Trade Deficit
The Street will be eagerly watching for two important data points expected to come out today - industrial production for November later in the day and trade deficit for December.

The IIP is expected to come in at a growth of around 0.6 percent versus a decline of 1.8 percent on a month to month basis. The IIP figure is expected to be driven by the likes of electricity. Manufacturing will be a key factor to watch out for.

In terms of December trade deficit data that comes out at 11 AM, it will be more of a market cue to watch out for. The range which a couple of economists are working with is a deficit of USD 9 billion to around USD 10.5 billion. This compares to around USD 9.22 billion in November.

10:00 am Data watch: Banks referred a record Rs 1.09 trillion worth of stressed assets to the corporate debt restructuring (CDR) cell between April and December, exceeding the level of Rs 91,400 crore for all of the previous financial year, an official said today.

"There has been an increase in the number of high-value accounts being referred by the banks," the CDR cell official told PTI on condition of anonymity. Banks referred as many as 83 cases in the first nine months of this financial year, compared with 129 cases during 2012-13, the official said.

In December alone, 14 cases worth over Rs 18,000 crore were referred to the cell, the official said, adding that the bulk of them came in the last 10 days of the month.

9:50 am Pharma update: Drug firm Zydus Cadila today said it has received approval from the US health regulator to sell Sirolimus Tablets, used to prevent rejection in organ transplantation, in the American market with 180 days of marketing exclusivity.

"Zydus Cadila received the final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Sirolimus tablets 0.5 mg with 180 days of marketing exclusivity," the company said in a statement.

9:40 am  Losers and gainers: Besides Infosys , Reliance , Sun Pharma , TCS and Cipla are other gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Sesa Sterlite, M&M, Bajaj Auto , ICICI Bank and Axis Bank .

9:30 am Results poll: Private sector lender IndusInd Bank will declare its third quarter (October-December) earnings on Friday. According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect strong growth in topline as well as bottomline, but net interest margin may fall in the quarter gone by.

Profit after tax of the bank is expected to grow 21 percent year-on-year to Rs 328 crore and net interest income may rise 23 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 712 crore in the quarter ended December 2013. Analysts say the loan growth is likely to remain strong at over 20 percent. Brokerage house expect it at around 24 percent.

9:20 am Infosys impact: Shares of Infosys rise around 2 percent after it announced December quarter earnings. Its adjusted net profit rose 19.4 percent , higher-than-expected, quarter-on-quarter to Rs 2,875 crore in the quarter ended December 2013. Year-on-year growth in profit was 21.4 percent.

Consolidated revenue increased 0.47 percent sequentially (up 25 percent Y-o-Y), in-line, to Rs 13,026 crore and dollar revenue climbed 1.6 percent Q-o-Q to USD 2,100 million in the quarter gone by.

The IT exporter raised its full year (FY14) dollar revenue guidance to 11.5-12 percent from 9-10 percent earlier, which was largely in-line with analysts' expectations of 11-12 percent.

The market opens in green. The Sensex is up 60.58 points at 20773.95, and the Nifty gains 10.50 points at 6178.85. About 264 shares have advanced, 78 shares declined, and 251 shares are unchanged.

The rupee opened marginally higher at 61.99 per dollar versus 62.07 Thursday.

The US dollar eases from a seven-week high in early trade as investors book profits ahead of the keenly awaited US jobs report, helping lift the euro that was briefly unsettled by dovish comments from the European Central Bank.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Alpari India said that, "Rupee will be rangebound before the market gets some fresh triggers from the IIP & inflation data. However, there will be sustained pressure owing to a weak equities and a strong dollar in international markets."

"But banks selling dollar at current levels will help rupee gain some strength. Range for the day is seen between 61.70-62.40/ dollar," he added.

Globally, US markets closed flat yesterday ahead of the crucial nonfarm payrolls data due today. Status quo on the monetary policy by the ECB and BOE lead the European markets lower.

Meanwhile, Asian market headed lower in opening trade ahead of China's trade data

Nymex prices rose above USD 92/bbl in early Asian trading after touching an eight-month low in the previous session, pulled down by a drop in demand for heating oil and speculation over withdrawal of stimulus money.

From precious metals space, gold prices trade little changed this morning as investors awaited US nonfarm payroll numbers to gauge the strength of economic recovery and the outlook for monetary policy. The metal though is headed for its first weekly drop in three weeks as recent economic data already suggested that the US economy was gaining steam.