Gold Pulls Back From 4-Month High

Gold futures relented just a bit on Tuesday, pulling back from the lofty levels reached in the prior session as investors continue to ride the precious metal in the face of persistent economic question marks and a tenuous geopolitical climate.

Gold for April delivery  fell $5.10, or 0.4%, to $1,322.90 an ounce in electronic trade. March silver  was hit harder, down 21 cents, or 1%, to $21.84 an ounce.

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“So far gold’s resilience has surprised me,” Marex Spectron’s David Govett said. “We have dipped off a few times, but these dips have been met by some good buying, and certainly some of the large selling that was so evident last year seems to have disappeared.”

Govett did, however, warn that the Shanghai premium has fallen flat, and that doesn’t bode well for those who believe that Chinese buying will save the gold market.

“All in all, I have to say I still think that the upside is limited to perhaps $1,350 and would continue to sell rallies to there,” he said, acknowledging that the downside to gold prices is probably limited to $1,300 an ounce for the time being.

A day earlier, gold jumped more than 1% to settle at $1,338 an ounce, its highest close since the day before Halloween, according to FactSet data.

The latest lift could be a move to safety ahead of economic numbers in the coming weeks that some expect to be weak. Uncertainty in Ukraine, Venezuela and Egypt are also to blame for the jitters that tend to draw investors to gold.

Elsewhere in the metals complex, April platinum  shed $8.20, or 0.6%, to $1,433.20 an ounce, while March palladium  lost $5, or 0.7%, to $738.05 an ounce.

High-grade copper for March delivery , which sat out the metals rally in the prior session amid weakness in the Chinese yuan, dropped another penny to $3.26 a pound.

Source : Market watch