Precious metals sideways as US festivities kick off

Precious metals continued to trade within narrow bands during Thursday afternoon business, as the US Thanksgiving holiday kept prices subdued, with safe-haven buying maintaining support.

- Spot gold was last at $1,374/1,374.80 per ounce, flat from Wednesday and just off a session peak of $1,375.10 hit recently. From a technical perspective, resistance now stands around $1,381-1,382, $1,387 and $1,400, with support pegged at $1,364, 1,361 and $1,356.

- Closure of US markets for the Thanksgiving holiday has constrained price movements, while it has also given traders time to digest macroeconomic and geopolitical concerns – events in Ireland and Korea are still keeping markets on tenterhooks.

- The euro – which came within a whisker of posting a new two-month low this morning at 1.3285 – recovered some ground and was last at 1.3342, down marginally on the day. European equity markets were mixed – the FTSE100 and DAX were up 0.1 and 0.2 percent, while the CAC40 fell 0.2 percent – moving tentatively as investors adopted a wait-and-see approach on contagion fears. Bond premiums for Spain, Portugal and Ireland increased again this morning.

- The other precious metals, like gold, continued in a sideways pattern - silver, at $27.50/27.55 per ounce, was last three cents lower. Platinum shed $7 to $1,654/1,660 per ounce while palladium was last indicated at $695/700, down $3.

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