UPDATE 2-Gold holds steady as market eyes $950 again
(Updates prices to close)
TOKYO, April 18 (Reuters) - Gold held steady on Friday, briefly recouping some of the previous day's losses, with traders watching to see if the precious metal would again try for the $950 level.
Some in the market expect gold to break out of its current rangebound trade and move higher.
"The elements supporting higher gold are there," said Tatsuo Kageyama, an analyst at Tokyo's Kanetsu Asset Management.
"Even though it was brief, gold did break above $950, with crude prices hitting record highs and the dollar continuing to remain weak against the euro," he said.
Spot gold rose to a three-week high of $952.60 an ounce on Thursday, before it gave up gains on profit-taking sparked by a slight recovery in the dollar.
On Friday, bullion XAU= rose to an intraday high of $946.40 per ounce. It lated pulled back to $938.90/939.90 by 0945 GMT, largely unchanged from the late New York level of $938.90/939.70.
Crude oil prices have slipped from the historical high of $115.54 a barrel marked on Thursday, but prices continue to hover within reach of $115 on worries about gasoline supplies in the United States ahead of the summer driving season.
Gold often tracks oil because investors use it as an inflation hedge when energy prices are high.
"Gold is still looking cheap relative to crude and needs to do some catching up," said Kageyama at Kanetsu.
Bullion is trading down about 8.5 percent from an all-time high of $1,030.80 marked on March 17.
In the currency market, the dollar steadied against the yen and the euro on Friday, clinging to gains made the previous day as investors grew more confident about the outlook for the troubled U.S. financial sector.
The dollar dipped 0.1 percent to 102.40 yen JPY=, hovering near a one-month high of 102.95 yen hit in early April.
The most-active U.S. gold futures contract for June delivery GCM8 on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange also bounced back in Asia, climbing by $3.4 per ounce, or 0.4 percent, to $946.3.
The benchmark February gold contract <0#JAU:> on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange closed up 2 yen a gram at 3,133 yen. Continued...
