Gold futures rose to a 19-day high overnight, as crude oil gained more ground, but the rally fizzled in early floor action on Friday as traders, confronted with tough technical barriers, cashed in on gains.
"Crude is still up, but there's very light volume here today, so I'm not making much of it," said a floor broker. "We had some follow through overnight, so this morning they might be taking some profits, a little evening up for the weekend."
December gold at the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange at 9:33 am EDT (1333 GMT) was off $1 at $601.50 an ounce. After peaking in screen trade overnight at $606, last seen on October 2, it fell to $599.20 in the open outcry session.
The main focus for gold remained the oil markets, where NYMEX November crude was up 18 cents at $58.68 a barrel, taking support from Opec's agreement, announced overnight, to cut crude production by 1.2 million barrels per day, a touch more aggressive than traders expected after two weeks of member haggling and market rumours.
Gold's fall to and then climb from a four-month low at $559.40 on October 4 was associated with inflation-protection strategies as oil prices declined to 10-month lows at $57.22 a barrel on October 12. Technical analyst Scott Meyers at Pioneer Futures said gold's bounce off $590 an ounce on Thursday was positive, and said he saw room for at least $610 or $612.50 in the near term.
A major trendline coming off the May high presented resistance at $606, allowing for subjectivity on selecting connected peaks. Another interpretation had the trendline breakout on Thursday.
Spot gold bullion hit 602.20 and last fetched $596.60/7.60, off from the New York close at $598.40/9.40. December silver was off 12 cents at $12.04 an ounce. Trading in a $12.17 to $12.03 range. It matched Thursday's 5-1/2 week high at $12.17. Spot silver eased to $11.94/2.01 from $12.04/11. It fixed at $11.98. NYMEX January 2007 platinum was $7.80 lower at $1,087 per ounce. Spot platinum was last priced at $1,079/1,084. December palladium fell $8.40 to $329 an ounce. Spot palladium last fetched $325/330 an ounce.
Comments
Comments are closed.