Commodities » Precious Metals

Gold and silver daily review (March 11, 2010)

Contributed by Nirmal Bang

By Nirmal Bang

MARKET ROUNDUP

Precious metals hit its lowest price in nearly two weeks on Wednesday, with gold falling toward $1,100 an ounce on COMEX on heavy futures liquidation and as safe-haven buying on Greek sovereign debt worries subsided.

IN FOCUS

- The world's largest gold-backed exchangetraded fund, SPDR Gold Trust said its holdings stood at 1,115.511 tonnes as of March 10, down 0.609 tonnes from the previous business day.

- The world's largest silver-backed exchange traded fund, the iShares Silver Trust, said its holdings stood at 9,351.40 tonnes as of March10, unchanged from the previous business day.

- The price of gold is likely to remain rangebound through the course of 2010, the head of Randgold Resources said on Wednesday.

- Norseman Gold lowers its production outlook for the year to June 2010 to 65,000 ounces from its previous forecast of 75,000 ounces to 80,000 ounces.

- China produced 86.616 tonnes of gold in the first two months of this year, 2.7 percent less than in the first two months of 2009, China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.

- Japanese gross domestic product grew a revised 0.9 percent in October-December from the previous quarter, less than economists' median forecast for a 1.0 percent expansion.

FUNDAMENTAL OUTLOOK

Precious metals prices are trading little changed on COMEX today. In the evening session we have the Initial claims numbers to be released by the US. Any positive surprise in those numbers will lend support to the dollar thus pressurizing prices of precious metals.