Gold Extends Climb

Ivaylo
29 Sep, 2006
New York City

Gold prices extended their recent climb on Thursday, with traders stating that improved physical demand and chart-based factors are the driving forces of the climb. Some of the selling pressure from earlier in the month abated when the December gold bottom of $576.60 an ounce on Sept. 15 remained above the June lows. Now, the contract is poised to return to $619, perhaps in the next couple of days.

[R]5:00AM Gold and silver futures continued their climb on physical demand.[/R]
December gold advanced $7.60 to settle at $610.90 a troy ounce on the NYME, while December silver added 3.5 cents to finish at $11.735 an ounce. Meanwhile, October platinum gained $7 to close at $1,146 an ounce, and January platinum settled up $13 at $1,160 an ounce. December palladium added $4.10 to settle at $324.10 an ounce. There was a price decline for copper, however, with the most-active December contracts closing 5.9 cents lower at at $3.4280 per pound.

Light, sweet crude oil for November delivery on the NYME slipped 20 cents to finish at $62.76 a barrel. The October gasoline contract lost 3.88 cents to $1.5011 a gallon, and the October heating oil contract closed 0.03 cent lower at $1.7138 a gallon. November natural gas futures settled 27.7 cents lower at $5.392 per million British thermal units on their first day trading as the spot month on the Nymex.

In sugar trading, October futures on raw sugar in foreign ports settled 0.4 cent higher at 10.55 cents a pound. In coffee trading, December contracts closed 0.60 cent higher at $1.0750 a pound, and March settled 0.60 cent stronger at $1.1135 a pound.