GOLDESSENTIAL (London) – Gold prices nudged up on Tuesday, January 18th, gaining on the back of dollar weakness and as interest in the metal picked up following a public holiday in the U.S. on Monday, which had thinned markets and held gold in a tight range, supported above $1,350 an ounce.

At 8.50GMT in London, spot gold was quoted $1,369.50 an ounce, up from $1,361.00 an ounce in late London trading on Monday.
At the same time, the EURUSD pair was trading at 1.3414, up from 1.3285 late on Monday.

‘[Speculative] interest in gold is still fairly muted’, said Matthias Detremmerie at Goldessential.com, adding that ‘movements in the yellow metal have become less attractive to traders, as prices are stuck in a $1,350-$1,390 an ounce range. At the lower end of the range you have bargain hunting and decent physical demand from Indonesia, Thailand and India, whilst on the other side speculators don’t seem to have any incentive on pushing prices back above $1,400 an ounce, certainly not after last week’s hints by Trichet on possible rate hikes’, he added.

However, further weakness below $1,350 an ounce may see stop loss selling, and may push prices towards the key $1,310-$1,300 an ounce mark as...

GOLDESSENTIAL - Investor gold holdings in the fifteen by Goldessential.com monitored pure-play gold-backed exchange-traded vehicles were seen jointly rising by 9,757,232 ounces or 303.48 tonnes (+16.54 pct) in the period between December 31^st, 2009 and December 31^st, 2010, in-house calculations based on official data showed on Monday, January 3^rd, 2011. Total end-of year holdings stood at 2,138.39 tonnes, a record.

The pace of investor gold hoarding however markedly slowed in comparison to the previous annum, 2009, when combined holdings had risen 629.52 metric tonnes or 52.22 pct.

Also in contrast to 2009, some of the monitored trusts reported net outflows during the interval, while others recorded gold holdings attaining all-time record highs.

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GOLDESSENTIAL (London) - Gold continued to trade below the $1,400 an ounce mark in Asian trading on Wednesday, following a late Tuesday knee-jerk reaction after the FOMC statement reiterated that an easy monetary policy would be continued in order to support the U.S. economic recovery. The news sparked a rally in treasury yields and drove the EUR/USD into profit taking mode, both denting demand for the yellow metal.

Rising interest rates are often seen as negative for gold, as they increase the opportunity costs of holding non-yield bearing investments, such as gold.

On Wednesday, at 7.41GMT, the benchmark COMEX gold futures contract for February delivery – GCG11 – was seen down $13.30 or 0.95 pct, at $1,391.00. Earlier in overnight electronic dealings, the contract had hit a session low of $1,388.50 an ounce.

GOLDESSENTIAL (London) – Holdings in the thirteen continuously by Goldessential monitored pure-play gold backed exchange traded products were seen rising 0.74 tonnes on Monday, December 13^th.