Gold - $500 an ounce?
NY precious metals mostly higher late morning
NEW YORK, June 6 (Reuter) - COMEX and NYMEX precious metals futures were mostly higher late morning Monday, with the exception of platinum which saw some slippage, after running up to new contract highs last week.
``There's more interest on the sell side in platinum this morning, but volumes are very light, with the physical market providing little basis on which to trade, as bid/ask spreads are wide and forwards are still not being quoted,'' one NYMEX floor trader said.
NYMEX July platinum was down $2.40 an ounce at $422.50, after seeing a new contract high last week at $473.40, when spot platinum prices in the physical market saw a seven year high at $500.
NYMEX September palladium was up $2.00 an ounce at $181.00.
But reports Monday indicated Russia's Finance Ministry had put a temporary hold on platinum group metal (PGM) export licences while it reviewed the terms of the export contract being negotiated by metal export agency, Almaz, with Japanese trade houses.
Last week Russian officals said a resumption of Russian PGM exports, suspended since December 1996, was likely on June 20.
Funds remain heavily net long both platinum and palladium according to the CFTC Commitment of Traders data released late Friday.
``Non-commercials'' increased net long platinum positions to 8,953 lots as of June 3rd from May 13, though they lowered net long palladium positions to 2,722 lots from 4,176 contracts.
Meanwhile, August gold was up 50 cents at $346.20 an ounce, after seeing a $345.80-347.30 range in the session.
In the bullion market spot gold was quoted $343.70/20, compared to the London Monday afternoon fix at $344.25 and the New York close Friday around $343.20/70.
COMEX July silver was up 0.7 cent at $4.790 early
The recent strength in PGM markets and the lower U.S. dollar were both supporting gold and silver, analysts said.
In addition, the ossible delay to the introduction of European Monetary Union (EMU), following the victory of the Socialists in Frances elections last week may lessen the need for European central banks to sell gold, analysts said.
Hedge fund manager, Richard Pomboy of Pomboy Capital Corp in Greenwich, Connecticut, took out paid adverisements in both the Wall Street Journal and the London Financial Times Monday, arguing that central banks were causing unrealised losses for themselves by mobilizing their gold reserves.
Central bank gold lending was depressing gold prices which otherwise might be closer to $500 an ounce, creating a book profit for central banks, if only they would revalue their reserves to market prices, Pomboy argued.
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