Gold rallied after its heavy fall yesterday when some of the headwinds it has faced in recent weeks turned gale force.
Spot gold added almost US$8 to US1,567.33, reversing some of the almost 2% drop seen Wednesday following a downgrade from Goldman Sachs and Fed minutes showing several members want quantitative easing scaled back.
News late in the day that Cyprus would also be required to sell €400mln worth of its gold stock to get its bailout package made it one of the worst days for the metal for months.
At the current price, the sale would amount 10.36 tonnes of metal, almost three-quarters of Cyprus’s gold reserves.
One crumb of comfort for the dwindling band of gold fans was that the Fed minutes came before the latest unexpectedly disappointing US jobs numbers.
They may persuade some of members of the Fed interest rate committee that the current loose monetary regime should run for longer, said traders.
Societe Generale meanwhile joined the gold sector bears with a sharp cut in its price forecast and hefty downgrades of its share price targets for the gold miners. .
The broker now expects the gold price to average US$1,500 per ounce this year (from US$1,800 previously) and silver US$27 from US$30.
Silver today rallied US$27.78 today, while platinum added US$12 to US$1,536.
