Gold closed today's Asian dealing up 2% for Yen investors from Friday last week, thanks to a dip in Japan's currency. Hot-money speculators, meantime, are still unwinding their gold bets ahead of year-end, leaving the metal to trade sideways in Dollars, Euros and Sterling.

"I think a lot of people are a bit long, that's why gold doesn't move much even though oil is getting higher," said a dealer in Singapore earlier. "Everybody knows there's going to be year-end book squaring. They want to keep gold below $650 until the end of this year, and you may see some selling-off. For me, $610 will be a good support."

On the foreign exchange markets, the Dollar was buoyed late Thursday by news that US jobless claims fell in the week to Dec.9. And Citigroup issued a note yesterday saying the US economy will accelerate in 2007. It sees the Euro falling to $1.26.

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