Fundamental Precious Metals (2010-09-02)

Spot gold is trading at $1248.36 an ounce after recording a high of $1248.61 and a low of $1243.30.

Yesterday, gold shed $3.30 or 0.26% to close at $1244.14 an ounce after better-than-estimated manufacturing report from the United States which boosted equities and damped demand on refuges.

Moreover, gold Price was setin London on Wednesday at $1246.50 per ounce declining from $1250.00 during the AM fixing. SPDR gold trust, the world's largest exchange-traded fund backed by bullion, soared to 1,304.03 metric tons yesterday from 1,298.55 on August 31.

Gold has gained 5.6% in August, the largest advance since April, on concerns from the United States but it slipped yesterday after visiting $1250.00 levels, the highest level since June 28, where it found strong resistance and investors were encouraged to lock in profits.

Despite the improvement seen in some US data this week, today's report is expected to show that initial jobless claims increased to 475 thousands last week from 473 thousands, while tomorrow unemployment is predicted to rise to 9.6% from 9.5%.

Later on today, the ECB will announce September's rate decision followed by the latest growth and inflation forecasts which may affect gold movements as the euro may strengthen if forecasts witnessed a raise.

However, the ECB is expected to keep non-standard measures till next year which may lift gold to $1300 in the coming period on expected slowdown in global recovery.

In the currency market, the dollar index, which tracks the dollar movements against a basket of major currencies, inched up to 82.51 compared with the day's opening at 82.45.

Asian shares bounced today spurred by the upbeat manufacturing growth in the United states, but the rise in stocks did not give an impetus to oil which declined to $73.80 a barrel from yesterday's closing at $73.95.

Among other precious metals, platinum rose to $1538.50 from the opening price of $1530.50, palladium edged up to $517.20 from $514.50, and silver rallied to $19.41 from $19.25, as of 08:00 GMT.