Fundamental Precious Metals (2010-01-21)

Gold Inches up after China's growth dataGold rebounded slightly today following yesterday's drop after the release of Chinese data that showed that China's growth reached 8.7% in 2009, beating estimates and raising concerns that China, which leads global recovery, may tighten its monetary policy in the coming period as recovery signs became evident.
The previous day, gold shed $26.30 or 2.31% to close at $1111.15 an ounce. Gold Price was setin London on Wednesday at $1120.25 per ounce during the PM fixing declining from $1129.00 at the AM fixing. SPDR gold trust, the world's largest exchange-traded fund backed by bullion, remained unchanged at 1,111.92 metric tons on January 20.
Gold prices surged today to $1112.91 an ounce after recording a high of $1117.55 and a low of $1110.80. However, gains were capped by the dollar's advance against a basket of major currencies. The green currency continued its rally as seen by the dollar index which climbed for the third day to 78.54 from Thursday's opening at 78.32, where the dollar has reached 5-month high against the euro.
Crude oil, on the other hand, inclined also to $77.72 from yesterday's closing of $77.50 ahead of the release of the EIA report later on today.
With regard to other precious metals, platinum slipped to $1611.90 from $1619.90 a day before, while palladium slumped to $464.50 from $470.70. However, the two metals, which are used as catalysts in car manufacturing, are still close to high records touched earlier this week.