Gold News

Gold Breaks Above $1100 as "Market Demands Premium" on Sterling, Dollar's Share of New Central-Bank Reserves Falls

Gold rose back above $1100 an ounce in late Asian trade on Thursday, rising further in London's short pre-Christmas session as world stock markets ticked higher together with US Treasury bonds.

Crude oil pushed above $76 per barrel. Base metals and most agricultural commodities also rose.

"Buying has returned to the [Gold] market," said Mitsui's London office this morning in a note.

"Market remained quiet until near [Tokyo's] Tocom close," said its Hong Kong desk. "Buying suddenly emerged and shorts started to cover."

Recovering three-quarters of this week's 3.5% drop against the Dollar, gold also rose sharply for UK investors, breaking £690 an ounce at the London AM Gold Fix.

French, German and Italian buyers saw the price hold beneath €766 an ounce as the Euro jumped to a one-week high of $1.44 on the forex market.

Long-term demand to hold US Dollars "is set to weaken" said a note from Barclays Capital on Thursday, noting that its share of new global central-bank reserves fell below 30% between July and Oct., "unprecedented in a period of US Dollar weakness."

"The Bank of England has bought more gilts over the last nine months than the government has issued," says Julian Callow, also at Barclays Capital.

"This is going twist dramatically the other way in early 2010. Markets know this."
Today 10-year UK gilt yields rose above 4.0% for the first time since July and only the second time since Nov. '08 as prices fell.

"Markets are demanding a risk premium on Sterling," says Callow.

German Bunds offered 3.32% by Europe's early lunchtime close on Thursday.

Ten-year US Treasuries yielded 3.74%.

Adrian Ash

Adrian Ash, BullionVault Gold News

Adrian Ash is director of research at BullionVault, the world-leading physical gold, silver and platinum market for private investors online. Formerly head of editorial at London's top publisher of private-investment advice, he was City correspondent for The Daily Reckoning from 2003 to 2008, and he has now been researching and writing daily analysis of precious metals and the wider financial markets for over 20 years. A frequent guest on BBC radio and television, Adrian is regularly quoted by the Financial Times, MarketWatch and many other respected news outlets, and his views from inside the bullion market have been sought by the Economist magazine, CNBC, Bloomberg, Germany's Handelsblatt and FAZ, plus Italy's Il Sole 24 Ore.

See the full archive of Adrian Ash articles on GoldNews.

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