COMEX gold and silver extend sell-off; PGMs find support

New York (Platts)--15Aug2006

Gold and silver futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile
Exchange continued to lose ground, despite a small rise in crude oil prices
Tuesday morning.
Traders said that gold was being slightly undermined by the uneasy truce
between Israel and Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon and was largely
unaffected by the small gain in crude oil prices. "A residual strength in the
dollar, despite the decision last week to put interest rate increases on hold
and recent rises in European interest rates, is also putting some downward
pressure on gold," said a trader.
The active December gold futures contract lost $4.60 to $628.50/oz by
10:18 EDT (14:18 GMT), and the active September silver futures contract was
down 9 cents to $12.07/oz at 10:27 GMT.
Traders said that volumes were thin and, so far, both gold had moved in a
narrow range. "It's fairly featureless," said one trader.
Neither gold nor silver took any lead from a turnaround in NYMEX platinum
and palladium futures, which were both up in morning trade, Tuesday. October
platinum, the most actively-traded contract, gained $6.70 to $1,240/oz by
10:27 EDT, while September platinum futures were up $2.70 to $321/oz, having
found support at the $320 level, traders said.

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