Last week, precious metals were poised to register a third continuous weekly gain, judging from the up trend during most of the trading sessions.
After closing at $1660.60 on Wednesday, its highest level since middle of December, gold continued its way up, before a fading euro rally pulled spot prices lower during the second half of the week.
Market analysts expect gold to extend its gains, provided it stays above its 200-day moving average.
The positive correlation gold has been sharing with the euro lately, granted profit opportunities early on during the week as the risk on sentiment lifted spot prices almost 1.30%. A strengthening risk appetite weakened the USD, which heightened physical demand out of Asia, lifting prices even higher during the first half of the week. Following the mini rally, Thursday saw a complete reversal of the trend, with investors and traders selling the precious metal on concerns that Greece will not be able to pay their debts, because the government and private lenders are yet to reach a compromise.
Despite the minor recent slide, spot gold prices have remained strong since the beginning of the year and have regained almost half of December’s losses. An expected slowing in Chinese buying due to the holiday on the occasion of the Chinese New Year also had some investors move to the side lines last week.
