(OroyFinanzas.com) – Gold firmed after Friday’s closing and opened the Tocom session almost at the stop limit high price. The yellow metal saw some profittaking from the general public which took it briefly below $688.

The dip was short lived though as speculative buying on the lows propelled spotover a dollar higher and the metal settled only ten cents off the 689.10 peak. In Europe we saw very light and range bounded trading due to the UK public holiday. The US dollar continued to be weak against the major currencies as it was kept under pressure by the last week’s US jobs data.The payrolls figures raised concerns about a slowing economy, a situation that could eventually lead to lower US interest rates. As for the Wednesday’s FOMC decision announcement it is widely expected that the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates unchanged at 5.25 percent.

The precious metal remained sidelined within a narrow two dollar range above $688 until the opening of the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices then edged north, marking a peak of $691, slightly higher then on Friday. The gains however could not be sustained, as Brent extended its retreat slipping below $65 per barrel, which prompted more investors to sell. The softer tone in crude was sparked by easing concerns of a supply shortfall in the United States and violence in Nigeria having a limited impact as market players turned to other assets and commodities. Platinum for example rallied to $1340 traded overnight, representing a 1.5 percent jump. So today’s stick at a Chevron oil production site in Nigeria was largely ignored, despite the fact that the protest hit 42,000 barrels per day production. There was nothing really to report about the market today as prices remained very quietly hovering within the narrow intraday range until the close with the only exception of a brief dip below $687 half way through the session. We believe that speculative interest in gold might provide the possibility for further gains, but profit taking and selling pressure seem to be capping the upside at $691 at present. This resistance has to be breached in order to head towards $695 followed by $700.

Silver also firmed overnight, jumping to its limit up on Tocom. On spot the white metal traded to the high of $13.51 and as gold remained sidelined in Europe, fluctuating on both sides on the $13.50 level. After the opening of the NY trading prices climbed higher, but as well as onFriday failed to break above the $13.60 resistance. The market was extremely quiet hovering above $13.50 for the entire Comex session. We believe that in the short term silver is likely to remain within the$13.40-13.60 range and would need to break out of it in order to establish a clearer direction.

MKS Gold & Silver, Daily Report
By Lidia Nazarova

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