P.M. Kitco Roundup: Gold Ends Near Steady, Recovers From Big Spike Down
Monday January 6, 2013 2:16 PM
( Kitco News) - Gold prices ended the U.S. day session about where they began it--near unchanged levels. However, a sudden, big spike down in prices at mid-morning created yet another buzz in the market. Gold prices did hit a three-week high overnight, on more short covering and bargain hunting. The gold and silver market bulls have gained some upside near-term technical momentum to start the new year, but have more work to do to suggest price uptrends can be sustained. February gold was last up $0.60 at $1,238.30 an ounce. Spot gold was last quoted up $1.20 at $1239.50. March Comex silver last traded down $0.086 at $20.125 an ounce.
The CME Group said an erroneous trade in Comex gold futures was not responsible for the February gold contract dropping sharply--by over $30.00 an ounce--in a very short period of time and briefly halting trading action at the Comex at mid-morning Monday. Reports said very heavy volume at the time of the price drop was recorded in gold futures--4,000 contracts in one second's time, which could have been a big “fund” trader taking a long futures trade off the table. The price of February Comex gold was trading at $1,245.40 an ounce at 10:13 a.m. eastern standard time Monday morning, and then within one minute fell to a low of $1,212.60. Prices at 10:15 a.m. had rebounded to $1,234.50. |
