NY precious metals end mixed, gold up, PGMs down
NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuter) - COMEX and NYMEX precious metals futures ended mixed Monday, with gold and silver higher on light volume and platinum and palladium lower.
``A little shortcovering in gold and trade buying near the close, helped gold to finish up, despite all the bearish sentiment at the Financial Times gold conference in Prague,'' Refco New York analyst Tim Porter said. ``But platinum saw more liquidation of long positions and switching out of the July contract which is nearing its delivery period.''
COMEX August gold ended up $1.70 at $344.80 an ounce after trading from $342.90 to $345.00 on estimated total COMEX gold volume of only 9,000 lots.
``Gold prices have been consolidating over the past three months and may be getting ready to make a significant move,'' Smith Barney options analyst Carmen Knoepffler said.
``Technically, the short/intermediate term price trends are down,'' she said. ``Resistance, basis the August contract, is expected at $352 while support is targeted at $341. Implied volatility for August gold options is still near the 9.3pct median of the past three years and the range for that period stands between 5.1pct and 17.9 pct.''
She added, ``With implied volatility relatively low and gold prices having the potential to move significantly from here, buying combinations of put and calls is recommended.''
In the bullion market, spot gold ended quoted at $342.40/90 against the London afternoon fix of $341.50 and the New York finish Friday of $340.80/$341.30.
A Federal Reserve study, arguing the U.S. and other governments should sell off their gold reserves to reap a gain of around $370 billion, was ignored, analysts said.
The study by Fed economist Dale Henderson and American university economists was not seen reflecting the views of the Fed or Chairman 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, support for the Swiss government's plan to sell gold over 10 years 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 ended up 1.2 cents at $4.687 on total estimated COMEX silver volume of 14,000 lots.
``Silver continues to be characterized by limited upside momentum above $4.90, due to weak investor demand and ample supply, and price stability under $4.70 reflecting good industrial demand from the U.S., Japan and India,'' Smith Barney analyst David Rinehimer said.
NYMEX July platinum ended down $2.40 at $423.90 after setting a seven-day low of $415.00.
But July platinum enters its first notice day in two weeks with 11,692 contracts open interest (584,600 ounces) still outstanding against NYMEX platinum stocks of only 54,700 ounces representing 1,094 contracts.
July platinum hit a contract high at $473.80 on June 6, while in the physical market spot platinum set a six-year high of $500 on an acute shortage of PGMs due to the suspension of Russian exports for the past five months.
NYMEX September palladium settled down $7.60 at $180.80 after hitting a new contract high Friday of $192.00.
But the PGM market remained sharply backwardated with spot palladium around $200, about $20.00 higher than September futures price.
And one-month palladium lease rates remained over 100 pct, with 12 month rates around 60 pct, PGM dealers said.
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 officials in New York were not available for comment.
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.
Russian officials returned to Moscow Friday, after concluding a new supply contract with Japanese traders in Tokyo, but refused to comment on when Russian supplies may resume. Earlier Russian officials said they expected supplies to resume in late June.
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