/ 15 July 2013

Gold climbs to best week since 2011

Gold Climbs To Best Week Since 2011

Platinum advanced to the highest level in more than three weeks.

Bullion for immediate delivery gained as much as 0.7% to $1 295.20 an ounce and traded at $1 289.08 at 11.54am in Singapore. Gold for August delivery climbed as much as 1.3% to $1 293.60 on the Comex and was at $1 287.80.

 

Spot gold climbed 5.1% last week after Bernanke said that highly accommodative monetary policy is still required for the foreseeable future. The rebound helped spur speculation that the selloff in bullion, which has lost 23% this year on concern the Federal Reserve will rein in stimulus, may be coming to an end.

 

"Bernanke came out and might have sounded a little more dovish than what the market was expecting," said Victor Thianpiriya, an analyst at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group in Singapore. "You are going to get these short, sharp bouts of covering of short positions," he said, referring to investors ending bets on losses.

 

Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis president James Bullard said on July 12 that the US central bank shouldn’t trim bond purchases until inflation accelerates toward its target.

 

Still, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia president Charles Plosser said the same day that the Federal Reserve should begin tapering in September, and end unorthodox stimulus by the end of the year.

 

'Reduce Fears'
"There probably isn’t too much downside from here,” Macquarie Group said in a report on Monday. "US economic data is likely to disappoint at some point in the next three to six months, which should reduce fears of an abrupt tightening of US monetary policy."

 

Assets in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest bullion-backed exchange-traded product, held steady for a second day at 939.07 metric tonnes on July 12, according to data on the fund’s website.

 

Silver for immediate delivery rose as much as 1.2% to $20.178 an ounce and traded at $20.0465. Platinum gained as much as 0.9% to $1 420.55 an ounce, the highest price since June 19, before trading at $1 415.05.

 

Prices are up for a sixth day, the best streak since January. Palladium advanced 1.2% to $730.40 an ounce, climbing for a seventh day in the longest run since September 2012. – Bloomberg