Gold steadied on Thursday after rising earlier, taking direction from European stocks that trimmed gains as worries about credit markets due to problems in the US housing sector persisted. Palladium eased to trade near nine-month lows hit the previous day, while platinum hovered above a recent five-month trough. Silver struggled to breach a key level of $12 an ounce.
Spot gold rose as high as $665.05 an ounce before falling to $659.85/660.45 by 1457 GMT, against $659.40/660.20 in New York late on Wednesday, when it rose more than $3. "I just don't see this market rallying. I think people got short because they thought that we are going to see a big collapse. This is the inevitable short-covering and people thinking let's go back to pre-last week level," said Peter Hillyard, head of metals sales at ANZ Investment Bank.
"I think there are potentially problems in the system that haven't yet emerged. There is potential for a second wave of jitters to come," he said, referring to global credit worries. European shares trimmed some intra-day gains in late afternoon trading after an early rally in leading US stock market indexes ran out of steam.
US stocks were little changed as lingering worries about the fallout from subprime mortgage troubles overshadowed optimism about Bank of America's $2 billion injection into troubled US mortgage lender Countrywide. Even though gold is traditionally seen as a safe haven in times of turmoil, the metal has behaved much like other assets in the recent months.
"After the sell off last week and the week before, we have seen the market has almost bottomed out and we are seeing a little bit of bounce now. Equities have recovered a bit, which has given the market a certain degree of support," said a precious metals trader in London.
"But I am not convinced that it's a huge reversal coming back now, because the subprime (worry) is not over by any stretch of imagination. We could see a return to the concern." Gold has rebounded more than 3 percent since falling to a seven-week low of $641.10 last Thursday, when investors sold gold and other metals for cash to cover margin calls on losses arising from a meltdown in the US subprime mortgage market.
"Unless a clear break of ranges is seen, it's prudent to wait and trade, rather than trade and wait," said Pradeep Unni, an analyst at Vision Commodity Services in Dubai.
"Physical buying emerges on every dip and funds are waiting to sell to raise cash on every rise. So gold stalls," said Unni, who pegged the downside at $635 an ounce. In other metals, palladium was at $322/326, against $326.55/330.55 an ounce in New York on Wednesday, when it fell as low as $313 - a nine month low.
Standard Bank strategists said in a note to clients that global market turmoil was proving hard for palladium and platinum to shake off. "Platinum and palladium are finding it difficult to recover after the prices slump of last week. Global markets uncertainty and the resultant effect on industrial demand in the US has seen palladium come under severe pressure," the bank said.
Platinum rose to $1,242/1,249 an ounce from $1,234/1,241. It got support after South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers said on Wednesday talks to end a three-day strike at Lonmin's Marikana mine had broken down. Silver rose to $11.68/11.73 from $11.58/11.61.