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Gold/Mining/Energy : A to Z Junior Mining Research Site -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jrhana who wrote (3608)	3/6/2003 9:41:25 AM
From: 4figureau	Respond to of 5423

Gold dips slightly, awaits U.N. report Thu March 6, 2003 06:41 AM ET LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - Gold stagnated at slightly lower levels in Europe on Thursday morning, with many traders preferring to remain on the sidelines ahead of the next U.N. inspectors report on Iraq on Friday. "We're clearly in a holding pattern...with the market news or event driven. We're waiting for news," said Simon Klimt, head of commodities at Westpac Banking Corp in Sydney. Spot gold was at $352.50/353.25 an ounce at 1135 GMT, marginally down on New York's Wednesday close at $352.75/3.50. The market was waiting for the United Nations inspectors report to the Security Council on Friday, but with the Council bitterly divided over a second resolution authorising war, traders preferred to stay out of the market. "The prospects for military action against Iraq have become even harder to predict over the last few days...This uncertainty, together with doubts as to what a war will mean to the gold price, is keeping most participants sidelined at the moment," John Reade, analyst with UBS Warburg, said in a report. Gold was boosted to its highest level in a week on Wednesday as the dollar crumbled to its lowest in four years against the euro . On Thursday the greenback idled just above those lows, but any further weakness was seen supportive for gold, analysts said. Strength in oil prices were also propping up the precious metal. Despite the uncertainty and underlying volatility, traders were looking for the metal's daily trading range to tighten compared with the past couple of weeks. "There is plenty of capacity for speculators to add to their long positions in gold, but no sign of any driver to trigger such activity," Reade said. Gold had rallied almost continuously since the end of November 2002, before setting a new six-year high of $388.50 on February 5. Platinum stabilised back under $700 an ounce on Thursday after jumping to one-month highs the previous session, although strong fundamentals looked set to provide further gains in the weeks ahead. Spot platinum was quoted at $693.00/698.00 by 1128 GMT, down from New York's previous $696.00/701.00. "Many of the factors supporting gold at the moment have carried over to the platinum market, although platinum does have a larger industrial component to its demand profile and this could waver if prices pass $700/0z, which the markets look set to test again today," Barclays Capital said in a daily comment. Palladium remained stuck at $236.00/241.00, barely changed from $235.00/240.00, while silver slid down to $4.62/4.64 versus $4.63/65. (Additional reporting by Kathleen Kearney, +852 2843-6933) reuters.com