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Comex gold ends little changed before holiday

NEW YORK: Gold and silver futures were little moved when New York trade folded early Friday for the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, while platinum group metals were mixed and awaiting Russian material, dealers said.

Nymex/Comex precious metals rings shut down one by one around midday and the exchange will not reopen until Tuesday.

February gold settled at $284.90, off just 20 cents in a tight $284.00-to-$285.60 range. Spot bullion was last quoted at $283.65/4.25, compared to London's $283.30 late fix and Thursay's New York close at $283.85/4.45.

Minor futures position adjustments as Comex February options expired was about the only feature in Friday's market, dealers said.

Meanwhile, the market remains cautious before the UK's January 25, 25-tonne auction, Britain's fourth planned disposal to reduce gold reserves to 300 tonnes from 715 tonnes.

March silver was off 0.30 cent at $5.15 an ounce, touching $5.13 and $5.18. Spot silver was unchanged from late Thursday at $5.10/13, compared to the $5.095 fix.

Silver has been balanced between fund selling and fears of Chinese disposals on the one hand and strong bullion buying interest between $5.00 and $5.10 from technicians, jewerly fabricators and industrial users on the other.

"There was very little fund activity. Again it was a quiet shortened-schedule day," said David Meger, metals analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago.

"Probably most of activity was in PGMs today, only based on the new Russian news that we we had," Meger said.

March palladium fell $6.00 at $441.00, still reacting to reports from Japanese traders Thursday that Russia's sole PGM exporter Almazjuvelirexport had asked if importers wanted to buy spot palladium, the first time Russia had offered spot in 2000.

"They've been shipping palladium, we pretty much knew that, and that's why we saw the break in palladium market," Meger said. "Industrial demand remains strong but with the idea that Russia sold about 1.5 metric tonnes or 50,000 ounces in recent days, which, in a relatively thin market, has really been pressuring prices."

April platinum rose $5.50 to $410.40 an ounce. -Reuters