Saudi Arabia is allowing local elections in an attempt to pacify its own citizens, and violence in Syria left six people dead.
"Short-term, sentiment is likely to remain mixed and volatile as traders and investors react to developments in the major news issues," says James Moore, research analyst at FastMarkets. "Strong investment demand in Asia should help underpin gold and silver in the coming sessions."
Moffatt says gold is still king, however, in China and India, "you have those two slugging it out ... to pick up as much gold as they can." India is more price sensitive than China and it's hard to determine who is buying -- China's central bank or individuals.
"But if you look at China as a producer," says Moffatt, "[it's] the world's number one producer, producing 340 tons of gold a year. You don't see any of that coming out of China. You see a lot of gold going into China." Moffatt believes that its central bank is a prominent buyer.
Reuters also reported Wednesday that China Gold International is in talks to buy five or six gold mines overseas. China Gold is 42% owned by China National Gold Corp, China's biggest state owned gold miner, which has been recently buying gold concentrate from companies like Coeur d'Alene Mines(CDE_).
