Gold held steady above $800 an ounce on Wednesday on the back of a struggling US dollar, while platinum hit a one-week high following a strike by miners in South Africa, the world's main producer.
Spot gold was at $803.40/804.20 an ounce, hardly changed from $803.80/804.50 late in New York on Tuesday, when it gained more than 1 percent and recaptured the $800 level on expectations of a rate cut by the US Federal Reserve.
Lower interest rates normally increase investor appetite for riskier assets, such as bullion, and also lessen the opportunity cost to investors of holding zero-yielding gold.
But gold's momentum was not strong. "The market is basically bound to a tight range of around $800. It's tough to make positions either up or down now," said Hitoshi Inagawa, senior manager at Yutaka Shoji Co.
The euro's recent rally versus the dollar has lost some of its steam and crude oil prices stalled ahead of the start of an Opec meeting on output policy later on Wednesday, he said. The euro was little changed from late US trade at $1.4763, supported by speculation that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates aggressively next week in response to the credit crunch and stave off a recession.
But the single currency was well off a record high of $1.4968 struck last month. Interest rate futures are pricing a roughly 50 percent implied chance of a half-percentage-point Fed rate cut at its meeting on December 11, while a 25-basis-point cut to 4.25 percent has been fully factored in.
The most-active February gold contract on Comex added $2.2 ounce to $809.8 an ounce on electronic trade. Cash platinum rose to $1,471/1,476 an ounce, its highest since November 27, on supply concerns, higher than $1,466/1,471 in New York.
Platinum, which is forecast by experts to end in a deficit this year, hit a record high of $1,486 last week. Almost a quarter of a million South African miners downed tools on Tuesday in a show of force aimed at breaking a cycle of mounting deaths in mines, disrupting output in the world's top platinum and gold producer.
The one-day national strike is the first industry-wide strike on safety, launched by the country's biggest miners' union in a bid to curb what they call a "genocide" in the nation's mines, some of which are the deepest in the world.
The benchmark gold futures contract for October 2008 delivery on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange finished the session at 2,863 yen a gram, up 37 yen or 1.3 percent from the previous close.
Key October platinum futures extended gains for a fifth straight session, rising 19 yen a gram, or 0.4 percent, to 5,046 yen. Cash silver edged up to $14.33/14.38 an ounce from $14.30/14.35 late in New York. Cash palladium was at $347/351 an ounce, almost flat from $346/349 in New York.
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