US gold futures and other precious metals contracts rebounded early on Wednesday from Tuesday's heavy sell-off, but analysts said the market could remain choppy in the near term. "The market had a big sell-off yesterday. Some short-term, weak longs got out. There is some short-covering today," said Jay Kaplan, a floor trader of Hudson River Futures in New York.
At 10:26 am (1426 GMT), most-active December gold on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange was up $1.10 to $737.40 an ounce, trading from $735.10 to $742.50. Gold bullion was quoted at $731.30/731.80, up slightly from the New York Tuesday close at $731.00/731.80. London bullion dealers fixed the morning spot reference price at $733.15.
Comex December silver gained 4.5 cents to $13.495 an ounce, trading between $13.425 and $13.595. Spot silver was quoted at $13.40/13.45, slightly higher than Tuesday's late New York quote of $13.32/13.37. London silver was fixed at $13.35 per ounce.
Platinum also bounced after finishing down 3.3 percent on Tuesday. Nymex January platinum was up $12.20 at $1,367.20 an ounce. On Monday, platinum futures hit a contract high of $1,403.90.
Spot platinum was quoted at $1,356/1,360. On Monday, spot platinum traded near its all-time high of $1,395 set in November 2006. Robin Bhar, head of base metals strategy at UBS in London, said in a client note that a weeklong Chinese holiday removed one normal pillar of support to platinum prices.
"So, further weakness may persist for the rest of the week, although we expect returning Chinese demand to support platinum next week, especially if the (spot) price dips towards $1300 an ounce," Bhar said. December palladium rose $2.25 to $355.85 an ounce. Spot palladium was quoted at $351/355.
Comments
Comments are closed.