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Gold held steady on Tuesday

Gold held steady on Tuesday, as investors remain focused on the development in Greece’s struggle with its debt crisis after Athens delayed its decision on accepting the terms of a new bailout.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was little changed at $1,718.59 an ounce by 0041 GMT, after touching a 1-1/2-week low of $1,711.29 in the previous session.

* U.S. gold edged down 0.2 percent to $1,721.50.

* Greece on Monday delayed its decision on whether to accept the terms of a new bailout for yet another day. Failure to strike a deal could push Greece into a chaotic debt default.

* Market participants are also awaiting a rate decision by Australia’s central bank later in the day. The Reserve Bank of Australia ismexpected to further ease interest rates as the Europe debt woes drag on.

* Major bullion bank HSBC said it was keeping its 2012 average gold forecast at $1,850 an ounce due to accommodative global monetary policies and investor jitters about financial markets.

* Platinum output in South Africa is likely to end up lower than forecast this year due to snowballing labour and safety stoppages, supporting metal prices but boosting costs for producers and dampening share prices.

* Spot platinum lost 0.2 percent to $1,618.75, up about 16 percent so far this year, after a 21-percent decline in 2011.

MARKET NEWS

* U.S. stocks closed slightly lower on Monday as lingering questions about Europe’s debt crisis and corporate earnings overshadowed growing optimism about economic growth after a five-week rally.

* The euro held steady in Asia on Tuesday as markets remained sanguine that Greece will eventually clinch a rescue package, even as the country’s political leaders delayed their decision to accept painful terms by yet another day.

DATA/EVENTS
       Xstrata Plc earnings                 Q4
 0330  Australia  RBA cash rate Final       Feb
 1100  Germany   Industrial output mm       Dec 2011
 1245  U.S.      ICSC chain stores yy       Weekly
 2350  Japan     Bank lending yy            Jan                    

 PRICES
 Precious metals prices 0041 GMT
  Metal             Last    Change  Pct chg  YTD pct chg    Volume
  Spot Gold        1718.59   -0.61   -0.04      9.90
  Spot Silver        33.61   -0.02   -0.06     21.38
  Spot Platinum    1618.75   -3.24   -0.20     16.21
  Spot Palladium    700.38   -2.59   -0.37      7.34
  COMEX GOLD APR2  1721.50   -3.40   -0.20      9.87         1269
  COMEX SILVER MAR2  33.64   -0.12   -0.34     20.49         1171
  Euro/Dollar       1.3121
  Dollar/Yen         76.53
  COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months - Reuters

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Posted by on Feb 7 2012. Filed under Gold price. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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