Precious metals decline on further liquidation

New York (Platts)--21Dec2006

Precious metals have resumed their downward path on the New York futures
exchanges Thursday morning as traders continue to juggle their positions in a
last-ditch attempt to salvage whatever profits they could before closing their
books for the year. Gold, silver, platinum and palladium have all suffered
marginal declines in relatively quiet trading.

On the COMEX, the February gold futures contract declined by $1.30 to
$623/oz at 10:06am and the March silver contract fell 10.5 cents to $12.54/oz.

On the NYMEX, the April platinum contract fell $5.80 to $1,127.70/oz when
it last traded at 9:29am and March palladium fell $1.70 to $326.05/oz at
10:03am.

Gold continues to track the currency and energy markets, according to
trade sources, and silver is following gold.

For platinum, one analyst noted that "some speculative dealers" have been
active in the past couple of days, just when everyone had thought they had
closed their books for the year.

Palladium is stuck in a trading range. "There is good two-sided business
in palladium," said another trader. "It's moving both ways and there is no
clear indication whether it's going up or down."

--Ovid Abrams, ovid_abrams@platts.com

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