Fundamental Precious Metals

As this week comes to an end, markets are very volatile and fluctuating heavily within narrow levels, especially with the lack of major fundamentals from Europe and Asia; however, our eyes will be focused today on the U.S. jobs report, which is expected to support the slight optimism seen in the market, with expectations gold could gain some more strength today.

Gold opened the session today in Asia at $1744.30 per ounce, and recorded the highest at $1748.21 and the lowest at $1737.95, and is currently hovering around $1746.79 per ounce.

Gold gained strength this week as the optimism seen in the market supported the metal to rebound, especially after investors liquidated their position on gold during the past week in order to cover the losses seen across the board, and now after the U.S. dollar lost strength and eased the downside pressures forced on commodities, metals and currencies, gold rebounded as investors hold gold again.

Optimism spread in the market this week as European lawmakers started to take important decisions ahead of the European Summit on December 9, where eyes are still focused on Europe and the debt crisis, and now after the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve in cooperation with other major central banks quelled jitters by lowering the cost of borrowing U.S. dollars, Germany comes to approve boosting the International Monetary Fund role in fighting the crisis, while the United Kingdom explained that it could cope with any changes in the European Union treaty in case these changes could support the euro-area region to tackle the crisis once and for all.

Choppy trading is expected today as eyes are looking forward to the U.S. jobs report, which is expected to show that the U.S. public sector could have added 125 thousand jobs in November compared with the previous 80 thousand jobs created in October.

Among other precious metals, silver also extended the gains recorded earlier this week, where after the opening of $32.74 per ounce, the metal gained 1.7% or $0.56, to currently trade around $33.31. The metal recorded a high of $33.42 and a low of $32.66 per ounce.

Platinum inclined by 0.34% or $5.38 per ounce after starting the session at $1560.00 per ounce, to currently trading around $1565.38. The metal reached the highest at $1566.75 and the lowest at $1553.00 per ounce.

Palladium inclined sharply today after opening the session at $631.00 per ounce, where the metal gained as much as 4.71% or $29.25 to trade now around 660.25 per ounce. The metal also reached a high of $661.25 and a low of $628.50 per ounce.