Calm descends on gold market, waiting on reports and data: trader

London (Platts)--17Apr2007

With traders and analysts waiting for the release of economic data,
particularly regarding the US economy, a relative calm has descended on the
gold market, a European trader told Platts.
"It's still rather quiet at the moment with the industry waiting for
reports and comments on issues such as the eurozone trade balance and US
housing," said the trader. "The market is also waiting on the level of the Dow
Jones and where crude prices will settle, although we still have a general
uptake trend in gold."
Meanwhile, in a statement released on Tuesday, Blanchard and Company, a
retailer of American rare coins and precious metals in the US, claimed that
solid precious metals price gains from the first of the year will continue
just as in 2006, with gold expected to surpass its highs of last year.
"Oil prices, dollar weakness, global interest rate decisions, inflation
concerns, and other macroeconomic conditions will all help to drive gold
prices higher in the coming months and years," said the company in a
statement, "but the increase in investor demand coupled with declining supply
in the market will allow those price increases to become sustained over the
long term as opposed to price spikes."
Gold was fixed at 688.00/oz this morning, pulling back from its late New
York spot price of $692/oz. Gold's London afternoon fix Monday was at
$686.50/oz, with the trader claiming that he could see gold "remaining in the
$683/oz to $689/oz range for a few days, possibly breaking $691/oz for a
time."
The euro was bid at $1.3536 at 1012 GMT, little changed from $1.3450 at
1500 GMT Monday. The trader argued that the dollar's relative weakness had
seen people attempting to diversify into precious metals, and gold in
particular.
--Edward Pearcey, edward_pearcey@platts.com