Gold flat in Europe, seen quiet ahead

18 Sep, 2004

Gold was mostly unchanged in Europe on Friday, after US consumer sentiment data came in little changed, and traders expected quiet trade next week owing to public holidays in Japan.
Traders said they expected spot gold to stay in a $400-$408 range ahead of a meeting next Tuesday of the United States Federal Reserve to set interest rates.
Spot gold was broadly unchanged at $404.50/405.30 an ounce by 1430 GMT from Thursday's late quote in New York of $404.25/405.00.
Prices popped to the day's peak of $406.75 a tonne in early afternoon, but then fell back to unchanged shortly after London's afternoon fixing session.
"Everything is just stuck with currencies at the moment," one trader said.
"The (New York gold futures) floor is very quiet. There's a long weekend for (Japan's) TOCOM and (in New York) it is NYMEX week," he added.
The dollar was hemmed in narrow ranges as investors tried to assess whether the US central bank was likely to change the pace of future interest rate increases.
It was widely expected to raise its federal funds target rate to 1.75 percent next week and has previously said it aims to boost monetary policy in a "measured" fashion.
US consumer sentiment stagnated in early September according to the University of Michigan's index of consumer sentiment. It dipped to a preliminary reading of 95.8 from August's 95.9. Analysts had looked for a rise to 96.5.
Some thought the funds might try to take advantage of the lack of market liquidity in gold next week.
"They might try and give it a push," he said, adding that could be in either direction and would be largely currency-driven.
Silver weakened to $6.21/6.23 from $6.27/6.30.
Silver has been stuck in a $6.04-$6.31 range over the past 10 days, recovering from a sharp fall two weeks ago when it lost some nine percent in just two sessions.
Platinum and palladium were similarly stagnant, quoted at $835.00/840.00 and $206.00/210.00 respectively from $836.00/841.00 and $206.00/211.00.

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