Gold had a rollercoaster day that led nowhere on Thursday, starting the day flat through Hong Kong, selling off through the first hour in New York to bottom at $943, rising back above $960 at the close of the Comex, and finally ebbing through the Globex to finish at $954.50/oz., up 40 cents. Overnight, gold has fallen off.
Platinum meandered through the $1250-1270 range all day, ending at $1262, unchanged. Overnight, platinum is trending lower.

Silver followed gold closely, except that its rebound off its lows was more compelling, peaking twice at $15.50 late in the Comex, before easing back to close at $15.38, up 21 cents. Overnight, silver is sharply lower. (Click here for charts)

In the end, it was quite the boring day for the precious metals, with platinum dead flat, gold just a few cents higher, and only silver showing a little spunk. Hardly what one would expect when the usual suspects were so supportive, with the dollar selling off and oil continuing its climb. But then, this is not a usual market.

“Gold has reasons to rally,” said Stephen Platt, an Archer Financial Services commodity analyst in Chicago. “The dollar is pretty risky to be in … [and] Chinese demand for gold seems to be better than expected.”

Platt backed his assessment with a prediction that gold will probably trade at “$990 in a couple of weeks.”

Just about everyone knows now that gold production is slipping as older mines play out and newer ones tend to come in at lower grade. Further, environmental regs, escalating equipment costs, and rising governmental royalty grabs have substantially raised the cost of pulling metal from the ground.

Nowhere moreso than in South Africa, where gold output is back at World War I levels, according to analysts from Gold & Silver Investments. Those analysts see a general “bullish sentiment” in the market, and add that: “Very strong support is showing at $935 with resistance still looking to break the magic $1,000 level.”

Source: Gold on the Road to Nowhere