LONDON -- Spot gold extended losses Thursday as the euro weakened against the dollar, while platinum found support amid strong investor buying in exchange-traded funds.
Spot Gold was recently trading at $1,105.05 a troy ounce, down 0.5% from Wednesday's close. Gold for February delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange was at $1,105.20 an ounce. Spot silver fell 1.2% to was at $17.66 an ounce, while spot platinum and palladium, which hit multi months highs this week, also were down, but held above Wednesday's low. Spot platinum was at $1,599 an ounce, down 1.3%. Spot palladium was at $457 an ounce, down 1.6%.
Spot gold could trade lower still amid euro volatility and concerns about Greece's debt, along with fears that asset-bubbles are forming in China and the risk that the Chinese government moves to control them.
"European Union debt issues and the technical breakdown in the euro look set to apply further pressure in the coming session, with gold potentially correcting back to the $1,050 area," said James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com.
Platinum and palladium are down along with gold but are supported by a surge in investor demand into the new ETF Securities Ltd. products launched in New York Jan. 8. Holdings now stand at 144,923.82 ounces for platinum and 194,976.70 ounces for palladium as of data for Jan. 19.
"The scale of investment demand should continue to limit the impact of the stronger dollar with both metals set to maintain their upwards trend," TheBullionDesk's Moore said.
The metals could still be due a period of correction, while gold will likely range between $1,100 an ounce and $1,150 an ounce in the near term, said Commerzbank analyst Peter Dixon.
In other news, Russia said its gold reserves stood at 20.5 million ounces at Jan. 1, up 4% from the Dec. 1 amount of 19.7 million ounces.
