PRECIOUS METAL

London-listed gold miners Petropavlovsk and African Barrick Gold retained full-year production guidance, after a strong third quarter, further helping to rebuild investor confidence after missing targets last year.

Gold could fall below $1,500 an ounce in the near term, as bullion has underperformed other assets and appears to have lost its safe-haven appeal, CitiFX said on Tuesday.

ETF Securities said on Tuesday the amount of metal it held to back its Physical Platinum exchange traded commodity fell 10 percent in the week to Aug. 24.

Russia's top gold miner Polyus Gold said on Friday its output of the precious metal rose 16 percent year on year to 1.1 million ounces in the first nine months of this year.

Gold prices rose 1 percent in Europe on Wednesday as the dollar fell to a three-week low against the euro, and after the Slovak parliament's rejection of a plan to expand the bloc's rescue fund stoked concerns over the Eurozone debt crisis.

Ghana is in talks with gold miners in the country, Africa's second-biggest producer, over additional taxes so as to benefit from the soaring price of the precious metal, the government said on Tuesday.

Swiss structured products exchange Scoach has become the world's first exchange to allow trading in gold-denominated structured products and might also allow exchange traded funds (ETFs) with gold as the trading currency.

Impala Platinum , the world's second-largest producer of the precious metal, said on Monday it has reached a two-year wage deal with South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), averting a possible a strike at the miner.

Gold rose more than 1 percent on Monday as the dollar fell versus the euro after France and Germany pledged to strike a proposal to recapitalize euro zone banks, while traders remained cautious ahead of further details of the plan.

Gold headed up Friday for its biggest weekly gain in a month as equities regained strength after fresh European efforts to resolve the debt crisis eased worries about a global recession, while purchases from jewelers offered additional support.

Gold headed for its biggest weekly gain in a month Friday as equities regained strength after fresh European efforts to resolve the debt crisis eased worries about a global recession, while purchases from jewelers offered additional support.

Gold firmed in Europe on Thursday as a strong recovery in equity markets cut selling of the precious metal to cover losses elsewhere, and as physical buyers took advantage of lower prices to stock up.

Gold fell more than 1 percent on Wednesday, extending the previous day's hefty losses, as rising equities diverted some interest from the precious metal, and as investors remained wary of buying into the market after its recent sharp volatility.

Wealthy individuals should buy gold as the yellow metal has become an attractive investment following last month's sharp reversal, private bankers in Asia said on Monday.

Gold headed for its largest one-day rise in nearly a month on Monday and silver climbed almost 5 percent after Greece warned it will miss deficit targets set to avoid bankruptcy, unleashing a sell-off in equities and commodities.

Central banks' gold buying is lifting the price of the precious metal in a trend that analysts expect to continue even if widespread predictions of a price rise to $2,000 by year-end comes true.

South African gold miner Anglogold Ashanti will invest $250 million each year through 2016 to raise its Brazilian output of the precious metal by two thirds, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Amid the second-largest gold sell-off since 1983, the casual observer could be forgiven for thinking that investors were dumping bullion in droves.

It's hard to be upbeat about gold these days, but technical analysts are keeping their faith in the long-term bull run -- just barely.

Gold prices rose more than 4 percent Tuesday, breaking a three-day losing streak, on optimism that Germany this week will approve an expansion of Europe's bailout fund and a decline in the U.S. dollar.

One thing is clear. There's nothing like a gold standard when it comes to analyzing the way the precious metal prices have behaved in the past three months. Gold's decade-long bull run peaked in the last three months when the prices went up by around 30 percent.