Gold rebounds from 2-week low on oil, bargain huntPRECIOUS-Gold rebounds from 2-week low on oil, bargain hunting
12.07.08,10:17 PM
Australia -
* Gold bounces from 2-week low on rising oil
* Euro edges up against dollar, helps gold(Updates prices)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Gold rebounded from a two-weeklow on Monday after oil recovered from last week's near-recorddecline, but recession worries could limit investor's appetitefor risky assets and keep bullion trade in a tight range.
Buying from Japanese speculators resurfaced after gold hadposted its biggest weekly fall in seven weeks as a dismal U.S.jobs report on Friday sparked selling across the board. Otherprecious metals also tracked gold higher.
Gold was at $760.35 an ounce, up $5.75 from New York'snotional close on Friday, when it fell as low as $740.40. Themetal was struggling to sustain gains after a rally to asix-week high of $830.10 in October was met by heavy selling.
Recent strength in the yen against the U.S. dollar spurredbuying from Japanese investors but gold prices are still at themercy of movements in stock markets and oil, said YukujiSonoda, precious metals analyst at Daiichi Commodities inTokyo.
"The gold price will be moving in a small range of $750 to$800. As long as the oil price is not so strong and stockprices also fluctuate, gold will be moving in the same range,"said Sonoda.
Oil rose $1.42 to $42.23 a barrel on Monday after closingon Friday at $40.81, the lowest settlement since Dec. 10, 2004.Oil shed a quarter of its value last week, the sharpest weeklyfall since January 1991.
Worries about rising inflation helped propel gold to arecord high of $1,030.80 in March but trading has since beenvolatile. Gold hit a 13-month low of $680.80 in October, when asell-off in equities forced investors to cash in to coverlosses.
The volatility though doesn't seem to have scared offretail investors, with the world's largest gold-backedexchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, saying it held757.89tonnes of gold as of Dec. 5, down just 0.23 tonnes fromNov. 26.
The euro edged up to $1.2748 after falling in New York onFriday, when data showed U.S. employers cut payrolls by a muchlarger-than-expected 533,000 in November, the sharpest monthlyloss since 1974. Markets were expecting 340,000 job losses,according to Reuters data.
"The strength in the euro offers some support for gold,which could find resistance around $767," said a dealer inSingapore, referring to the 5-day moving average.
Platinum was trading at $793.00 an ounce, up $5.00 onspeculative buying in Japan, but uncertainties prevailed astheWhite House and congressional negotiators sought to removedifferences over an emergency rescue for the auto industry.
"Many people think the problems faced by will be settled. The reality is quite different. Even if theU.S. government supplies some money, it's not going to solveany problems," said Sonoda of Daiichi Commodities.
New York gold futures added $9.0 an ounce to $761.2 inelectronic trade.
Speculative gold players in the non-commercial categoryboosted their net long positions to 84,369 long on gold futurestraded on COMEX at Dec. 2, up from 81,872 net long lots at Nov.25, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed.Precious metals prices at 0237 GMTMetal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chgTurnoverSpot Gold 760.35 5.75 +0.76 -8.69Spot Silver 9.54 0.09 +0.95 -35.41Spot Platinum 793.00 5.00 +0.63 -47.83Spot Palladium 160.50 1.00 +0.63 -56.39TOCOM Gold 2265.00 -16.00 -0.70 -25.9818919TOCOM Platinum 2374.00 11.00 +0.47 -55.535650TOCOM Silver 281.30 -0.40 -0.14 -48.0079TOCOM Palladium 501.00 -16.00 -3.09 -62.92103Euro/Dollar 1.2750Dollar/Yen 92.74TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which ispriced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.(Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Michael Urquhart)
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