Nymex platinum rose almost 4 percent on Monday, ending two weeks of sideways trade and hitting a new a 24-year high with little resistance, since London physical markets remained closed for the Easter holidays.
Hong Kong bullion markets were closed as well. Gold and silver also started higher, only to see support evaporate in such illiquid conditions.
The benchmark July platinum contract rose to $938.00 an ounce, a price last seen when the metal, used in jewellery and automobile pollution control systems, was around record highs in March 1980.
"There was a little bit of bargain hunting in there. There was a little bit of looking at the bigger picture and there was a lot of holiday in there as well," said Bernard Hunter, a director at bullion dealer ScotiaMocatta in Toronto.
The contract closed up $35.30 at $935.50. Spot fetched $937.00/942.00, up from $900.00/905.00 at Thursday's close before the US Good on Friday market holiday.
That exceeded the previous high at $915.50 from March 25.
Demand for platinum has been strong this year as a recovering global economy has spurred jewellery and vehicle sales.
Plus, carmakers have been buying more platinum to put in catalytic converters due to tougher regulations limiting exhaust emissions.
But speculators have taken the lead in putting precious metals at the vanguard of a commodity boom.
They have rotated among gold, silver, platinum and palladium, all of which have probed mullet-year highs on the back of unprecedented fund interest in the metals sector.
"It's all speculative; there certainly isn't any fundamental news out," said a dealer at a refining company.
June palladium rose $6.75 to $37.20, hitting a 19-month continuation high at $344.70. Spot palladium fetched $332.00/$337.00, up from $326.00/331.00.
Like platinum, palladium is mainly used in catalytic converters.
New technology has raised hopes that it will be possible to use palladium in diesel engines, which have used only platinum as a catalyst until now.
Comex may silver fell below $8 for the first time since hitting a seven-year high at $8.50 on April 2.
It closed down 6.0 cents at $8.03 an ounce, after bottoming at $7.82, it's lowest since March 31 and off a high of $8.21.
Spot silver closed at $8.00/02, down from $8.07/09.
"It's thin stuff. But still, it's a market that is just way overbought," said James Pagoda, a vice president of precious metals at Mitsubishi International Corp.
"Even if nothing surfaces here and we drop $1, we still have a pretty positive-trending market," he said.
June gold settled 20 cents firmer at $420.90, trading from $423.10 to $418.00.
Gold has been consolidating since futures hit a 15-year high at $433 on April 1. Spot gold was last indicated at $419.50/0.00, versus the previous close at $419.25/75.
According to the Commitments of Traders data released by the CFTC on Friday, the net speculative long position in Comex gold rose to a record 144,253 contracts from 125,138 contracts in the week to last on Tuesday.
"Any consolidation in a market like this is going to translate to fairly big moves," Hunter said.
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