NY precious metals firmer early, except palladium
NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuter) - COMEX and NYMEX precious metals futures were higher early Monday, in very quiet trade, except for palladium which was giving back Friday's gains, traders said.
``You could call it steady-to-firm or you could just call it motionless,'' North American Equity Services floor trader, John Geraghty said, referring to the COMEX gold futures price.
``There is still concern about central bank gold sales, but there have been some buy recommendations from investment advisory services over the weekend, as the shorts looks to be giving up on adding further positions,'' he said.
COMEX August gold was up 60 cents at $343.70 an ounce after the first hour of trade, after seeing an early range between $342.90-343.80.
In the bullion market, spot gold was quoted $341.50/00 early, compared to the London Monday morning fix at $340.95 and the New York close Friday around $340.80/30.
The market was ignoring a new U.S. Federal Reserve study arguing the U.S. and other governments should sell off their gold reserves to reap a gain of around $370 billion, analysts said.
The study by Federal Reserve economist Dale Henderson and other American university economists was not seen reflecting the views of the Federal Reserve board or its chairman Alan Greenspan.
Meanwhile, French central bank official, Jean-Pierre Patat, told delgates to the Financial Times annual gold conference in Prague Monday that several European central banks which had recently sold some gold reserves no longer feel there is an advantage in selling more.
In other news, public support for the Swiss government's plan to sell gold over a ten year period to fund a Holocaust victims compensation fund was waning, according to latest polls.
The IPSO polling agency found 48 percent of Swiss supported the plan, down from 58 percent when the plan was announced in March. The plan must pass a public referendum next year if it is to go ahead.
COMEX July silver was up 1.5 cents at $4.690 an ounce.
Meanwhile, NYMEX July platinum was up 70 cents at $427.00 but NYMEX September palladium was down $8.40 at $180.00.
Over the weekend, Japanese traders reported a visit by officials of U.S. fund Tiger Management to Japan, seeking to sell some of the palladium stockpile it has built up.
Tiger Management is believed to have built a stockpile of 1.5 million ounces of palladium at an average price of $135 an ounce, starting in 1996 and is seen partly responsible for the rise in palladium prices to a 17 year high last month.
But the main reason for the acute shortage of the white metal was the absence of the world's largest supplier - Russia - from the market for the past five months, analysts said.
``Spot prices and September futures prices may be off a bit this morning, but the market remains very backwardated and lease rates remain high, so the crisis is not over yet,'' one refining source said.
Spot palladium was quoted around $200.00 an ounce early, about $20.00 an ounce above the September futures price, while one month palladium lease rates remained above 100 pct and 12 month lease rates were around 50-60 pct.
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