Gold held steady in narrow ranges in Asia on Monday as trading slowed to a trickle ahead of the year-end holiday season. A fall in the fund's long positions in New York helped ease year-end selling pressure, but gold was likely to hover in a tight $5 an ounce range until the end of the year, dealers said. Key support was pegged at $440.
Spot gold was trading at $441.50/442.25 an ounce, versus $440.90/441.65 last quoted in New York on Friday, when gold rose nearly $5 because of a softer dollar that raised the metal's safe-haven appeal.
The CFTC Commitments of Traders reported on Friday the net speculative long position in Comex gold tumbled to 87,794 contracts as of December 14 from 132,347 lots as of December 7. The non-reportable net long position slipped to 35,004 lots from 36,910 lots previously.
Some dealers said gold could revisit $450 next year, given the gloomy outlook for the US dollar on worries about the ability of the United States to finance its ballooning deficits. The euro was quoted at $1.3324 compared with around $1.3307 in late US trade.
A weak dollar makes dollar-denominated gold more affordable for holders of other currencies. Dollar weakness, geopolitical tension and high oil prices, which rekindle fears of inflation, pushed gold to a 16-year high around $456.75 an ounce in December.
"There's no liquidity in the market and I don't see much physical demand either. I think gold will be in a $440 to $445 range until the end of the year," said one dealer in Hong Kong.
Markets will focus on US data on gross domestic product and industrial production on Wednesday, durable goods data and the University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey on Thursday for fresh readings on the health of the US economy.
In Tokyo gold futures, the benchmark October gold contract in Tokyo gold futures rose seven yen per gram to 1,486 yen on the back of gains in New York futures.
"I think for the time being, we are seeing it (market) coming into the sort of holiday season still it is going to be watching the dollar," said Martin Mayne, associate director at N M Rothschild in Sydney.
Platinum was trading at $836/841 an ounce, up from $834.50/839.50 in late in New York.
Sister metal palladium stood around $177/182 an ounce after matching a 16-month lows at $174 an ounce.
That compared with $176.50/182.50 in late US trade Silver was at $6.79/6.82 an ounce, versus $6.72/6.76 in New York.
Comments
Comments are closed.