Thursday morning gold flat above $940 an ounce, upheld by light physical buying as investors viewed the currency market for clues on the bullion’s direction.
Spot gold stood at $941.90 an ounce at 4:00 GMT, almost flat from New York's notional close of $941.55. Bullion hit a 3-week low below $930 per ounce Monday. But precious metal prices face short-term resistance around $950 per ounce, traders consider. Some of them even said a decisive fall below $940 could trigger a rush of fund liquidation.
Doubts about an emergent global economic recovery had recently encouraged investors to sell riskier assets and pile into safe-haven bets including the dollar and US Treasuries. However dollar’s weakening this week fuelled investors' tolerance for such riskier assets as stocks and commodities.
A lack of direction in gold prices has recently kept many long-term investors away, resulting in a market driven mainly by speculative fund positions. Meantime, the currency market on Thursday has failed to provide any clues on the direction of gold.
World gold demand fell by 9% in the second quarter as rising prices and the impact of the global recession curbed jewellery consumption, according to a report by the World Gold Council.
US gold futures for December delivery GCZ9 were at $944.00 an ounce. The contract on Wednesday settled up $5.60 at $944.80 on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The SPDR Gold Trust’s holdings stood at 1,065.49 tonnes as of August, 19, unchanged since August, 11, that mirrored lacklustre interest by long-term investors.
- At about 4:09GMT the other precious metals was quoted as much as:
- Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
- Turnover Spot Gold 942.00 0.45 +0.05 7.03
- Spot Silver 13.92 0.13 +0.94 22.97
- Spot Platinum 1233.50 -1.00 -0.08 32.35
- Spot Palladium 271.00 1.00 +0.37 46.88
- TOCOM Gold 2869.00 20.00 +0.70 11.50 32131
- TOCOM Platinum 3764.00 64.00 +1.73 41.93 8490
- TOCOM Silver 424.40 5.40 +1.29 32.92 142
- TOCOM Palladium 834.00 13.00 +1.58 51.64 78
- TOCOM prices are in yen per gram, except
- TOCOM silver which is priced in yen per 10 grams.
Spot prices are in $ per ounce.
