12:17 PM ET 07/18/97
NY precious metals higher midday, led by gold
NEW YORK, July 18 (Reuter) - COMEX and NYMEX precious
metals futures were higher midday Friday, led again by a
recovery in gold prices as funds covered short positions,
traders said.
"Gold prices have climbed back up through the $325-326
mark, the level from which the last breakdown occurred, giving
a technical buy signal," one COMEX floor trader said.
"Funds now appear to be looking for a recovery to around
the $335-340 level, before re-establishing shorts," he said.
COMEX August gold was up $2.30 an ounce midday at $327.00,
following a $6.00 an ounce jump Thursday.
The August/December spread was back to around $3.50 though,
after swinging out to around $4.00 an ounce early in the
session.
COMEX open interest fell about 3,000 lots in gold Thursday,
floor traders said, though the data was not available publicly
at midday.
Fund short positions in COMEX gold recently rose to almost
300 tonnes (9.65 million ounces), analysts said, equivalent to
about half South Africa's annual output, and more than twice as
big as the fund short positions on COMEX in 1993, just before
gold began a rally to seven year highs in early 1996.
In the bullion market, spot gold was quoted around
$326.10/50 midday, compared to the London Friday afternoon fix
at $324.20 and the New York close Thursday around $323.50/00.
Implied lease rates for gold eased further to around 2.15
percent for one month Friday, from a six month high around 2.60
percent early this week, suggesting hedge fund borrowing
demand, to fund short positions, may be easing, traders said.
Gold fixed at a 12 year low last week at $315.75 in London,
in the wake of news of a sale of 167 tonnes of gold by the
Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which encouraged massive
amounts of extra short selling by hedge funds, analysts said.
COMEX September silver was up 5.00 cent at $4.295 an ounce,
recovering from a breakdown to contract lows this week at
$414.50, though that price was only seen in after hours ACCESS
trade. In the bullion market, silver fixed at a three year lows
at $4.2235 an ounce earlier this week.
NYMEX platinum group metal (PGM) futures were also higher
as the white metals continued to recover from two month lows
seen in the past week.
NYMEX October platinum was up $3.30 at $397.00, with the
October/January backwardation widening to $11.00 an ounce.
NYMEX September palladium was up $5.50 at $165.90.
Russian shipments of palladium to Japan resumed this week
after a six month suspension, but problems appear to be
developing with shipments of platinum, which have not arrived
yet, traders said.
((Clive McKeef, New York Commodities Desk, 212-859-1641)) |
