Time to throw away the chart?...Gold regains strength after drop, platinum bounces
Sun Mar 9, 2008 10:31pm EDT
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold bounced on Monday on bargain hunting after a failure to break through the $1,000 an ounce barrier spurred selling last week, while platinum gained despite selling in Tokyo.
Expectations of further interest rate cuts in the United States and record high crude oil that raised fears of inflation were likely to sustain investors' interest in gold, which may find good support at $960 an ounce, dealers said.
Gold roared to an historical high of $991.90 an ounce on March 6 before funds cashed in to boost liquidity.
Gold rose to $974.50/975.30 an ounce from $972.60/973.40 late in New York on Friday, after it swung between a low of $969.40 and a high at $988.00.
"I don't know if you should necessarily think that's the end of the run-up in gold," said David Moore, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.
"I think these early preconditions that have been supportive for the gold price are likely to remain in place in coming weeks, particularly the anticipation that the Fed will further lower U.S. interest rates," he said.
Gold futures for April delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange added $2.4 an ounce to $976.6 but were off a record high of $995.2 an ounce hit on March 5.
The dollar dipped back toward a record low against the euro and an eight-year low against the yen after surprisingly weak U.S. jobs data heightened fears the U.S. economy had fallen into recession.
The U.S. central bank has slashed its federal funds target rate by 2.25 percentage points since September to its current 3 percent level and is widely expected to cut it again at its next policy-setting session on March 18.
Spot platinum firmed to $2,650/2,070 an ounce from $2,020/2,030 an ounce in New York on bargain hunting after a dip to $2,020 -- matching Friday's 3-week low.
Platinum was moving away from a record high of $2,290 an ounce on March 4 on news that mines in South Africa, the world's top platinum producer, would get more electricity supply.
The benchmark platinum futures contract for February 2009 delivery on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange fell by its daily 300-yen limit to 6,707 yen a gram on Monday due to a surge in the yen.
Silver edged up to $20.20/20.25 an ounce from $20.11/20.16 an ounce. Spot palladium rose to $493/498 an ounce from $485/490 an ounce.
Precious metals prices at 0214 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 974.70 2.10 +0.22 17.05
Spot Silver 20.20 0.07 +0.35 36.76
Spot Platinum 2060.00 40.00 +1.98 35.53
Spot Palladium 493.00 8.00 +1.65 33.97
TOCOM Gold 3230.00 -20.00 -0.62 5.56 28166
TOCOM Platinum 6707.00 -300.00 -4.28 25.62 1202
TOCOM Silver 669.80 5.30 +0.80 23.81 1150
TOCOM Palladium 1712.00 -100.00 -5.52 26.72 640
Euro/Dollar 1.5383
Dollar/Yen 102.24
TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Tomasz Janowski) |
