By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures fluctuated Monday, most recently making a fresh attempt at gains and inching closer to the $1,300-an-ounce level.
Gold for December delivery added 50 cents to $1,298.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Earlier in the day, the metal hit an intraday high of $1,301.30 an ounce, but it dipped into the red shortly after.
Gold has settled at a record high for six of the past seven sessions, ending the week up 1.6%. It touched $1,300 Friday, but was unable to settle above that level.
“While gold is likely to make more attempts at overcoming this mark on a lasting basis, the air appears to get thinner at this level. In our view, gold’s latest price rally was more down to dollar weakness than gold strength so the rally has a shaky footing,” analysts at Commerzbank said in a note to clients.
Silver maintained its 30-year high, with the December contract adding 5 cents, or 0.2%, to $21.45 an ounce.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch raised its medium-term price target for silver to $25 an ounce Monday, noting their belief that silver prices will rise gradually, mostly thanks to investment, rather than industrial, demand.
“However, as the global economy stabilizes over the next two years and new applications start to mature, we believe that fabrication demand will strengthen, which should then give additional impetus to push prices higher,” they said.
The investment bank had a price target of $20 an ounce for silver in 2010.
