US gold ends down; PGM ETFs set to launch Friday
NEW YORK, Jan 7 (Reuters) - U.S. gold futures ended lower on Thursday as a sharp bounce in the dollar prompted profit taking, while investor sentiment in platinum group metals improved ahead of the launch of the first U.S. exchange-traded funds.
For the latest detailed report, click on [GOL/].
GOLD
* Gold for February delivery GCG0 settles down $2.80 at $1,133.70 an ounce on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
* Range from $1,128.70 to $1,139.50.
* Gold retreated from a three-week high in the previous session as the dollar strengthened against the euro. [USD/]
* Pressure seen after gold failed to breach key overhead resistance near $1,143; near-term support at the $1,130 area - Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco Metals.
* Gold/oil ratio at 13.72, against previous session's 13.68.
* COMEX estimated final volume at 111,996 lots.
* Spot gold XAU= at $1,134.60 an ounce at 2:39 p.m. EST (1939 GMT), against the previous session's late quote of $1,137.90.
* London afternoon gold fix XAUFIX= at $1,130.25.
SILVER
* March silver SIH0 ends up 17 cents at $18.345 an ounce on strong investment demand.
* Range from $18.055 to $18.420 -- a four-week high.
* COMEX estimated final volume at 26,801 lots.
* Spot silver XAG= at $18.31 an ounce, versus the previous session's late quote at $18.18 an ounce.
* London silver fix XAGFIX= at $18.09.
PLATINUM
* NYMEX April platinum PLJ0 finishes up $1 at $1,559.40 an ounce ahead of the launch of the first U.S. platinum and palladium exchange-traded funds.
* ETF Securities Ltd's first U.S. platinum and palladium ETFs will start trading on Friday and are expected to attract a rush of investment dollars into a highly liquid U.S. precious metals market. [ID:nN07368852]
* Spot platinum XPT= was at $1,550 an ounce.
PALLADIUM
* March palladium PAH0 closes down $2.65 at $424.55 an ounce on profit taking as investors had long anticipated the ETF launch.
* Spot palladium XPD= was at $422.50 an ounce. (Reporting by Frank Tang; editing by Jim Marshall)
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In the ongoing and ludicrous practice of economic via the management of perceptual economics, MOPE, with only a very small number of exceptions, the price of gold drops at every jobs report.
The spin used to make the correlation between the price of gold dropping and the jobs report is creative and bizarre.
If the statistically manipulated jobs number, which can create jobs out of hedonically calculated processes and the birth/death model is strong, then the news will be dollar positive because the economy is going to begin to grow and therefore the dollar will be stronger? They won’t talk about the fact that if in fact the improvement in jobs is real and not just the work of imaginative statisticians and their highly inaccurate numbers, that any major improvement in the economy is likely to drive the already climbing inflation (also purposefully and dramatically under reported), and that this will drive gold prices up.
If for some reason the jobs number is bad, it will be said that gold dropped because investors are fleeing risk? They will not discuss the fact that the only real money on Earth not encumbered by un-repayable levels of debt and counterparty obligations remain gold and silver and that classically gold well in either heavy inflationary or deflationary environments and that relative to the number fiat currency and electronic fiat currency and derivative units and total debt units in circulation, gold is cheaper now than it was at $300 per ounce.
They will ignore the fact that unlike every other major commodity, all of which surpassed previous inflation adjusted high marks, gold remains at less than ½ of its inflation adjusted high and silver at less than 1/6th, even as mining supply and total available above ground supplies have continued to drop and mining costs have continued to rise. They will also studiously ignore the most profound research into central bank manipulation of gold by the non-profit organization, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, GATA, which strives to elucidate what appears to many to be the illegal and secretive efforts of the US and certain other central banks to suppress the price of gold through swap operations.
Tomorrow, Friday, January 8th 2010 may be an exception but I’m not counting on it.
Duffminster
http://www.duffminster.com/SilverandGold
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