Gold bounced on Friday after a drop from a one-month high spurred buying from bargain hunters, but jewellers stayed on the sidelines, awaiting clues from the energy market.
Spot gold firmed to $927.15/928.05 an ounce from $917.60/918.80 an ounce late in New York on Thursday, when it jumped to its highest in more than a month at $935.30 before falling sharply on profit taking and as oil trimmed gains.
But gold has struggled to sustain the uptrend since spiking to a lifetime high of $1,030.80 an ounce on March 17, falling to a four-month low of $845 an ounce in early May as investors booked profits. "I don't sense there's huge enthusiasm right now for gold," said Stephen Briggs, economist at SG Corporate and Investment Banking.
"Resistance is still around the $935-$940 area, so unless we see a retest of that region soon, we may just head down towards the $900-$905 supports," said Adrian Koh, an analyst at Philip Futures in Singapore. Gold futures for June delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange added $8.0 an ounce to $926.3 an ounce.
In other precious metals, platinum regained some footing after falling from a two-month high the previous day as speculators booked profits. Spot platinum firmed to $2,163.00/2,183.00 an ounce from $2,156.50/2,176.50. "Certainly the fundamentals remain very bullish. Fresh highs above $2,300 are quite easily on the cards, either in the next few weeks and certainly the later part of the year," said James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com.
Platinum struck a record of $2,290 an ounce on March 4 due to power shortage in South Africa which disrupted mining. Spot silver rose as high as $18.26 an ounce, its highest level since April 18, to track gains in gold. The metal was last quoted at $17.92/17.98 late in New York.Spot palladium rose to $450/458 an ounce from $448/456 an ounce.