Gold was flat until just before the New York open on Thursday, popped about $10 from there, but then gave it back before trading rangebound for the rest of the day, finishing at $934.20/oz., up 40 cents. Overnight, gold has fallen off.

Platinum prolonged its recent bust-out to the upside, pushing as high as $1160 early in New York, then declined through the Comex and went flat on the Globex, ending at $1142/oz., up $21. Overnight, platinum is trending lower.

Silver pushed higher from Hong Kong through to the noon hour but eased gently from there, closing at $13.52/oz., up a penny. Overnight, silver is sharply lower. (Click here for charts)

It was another very lackluster day for the precious metals, except for platinum, which is generating a good bit of buying interest and yesterday touched a six-month high.

“Some people may think that perhaps the car industry will start to pick up,” said Greg McKinnell, a precious-metals trader at London-based Johnson Matthey. “With the economic stimulus package at the moment there’s some confidence in the market.”

Nevertheless, “it’s very hard to say with any real conviction that this is the start of the upturn,” McKinnell added. “There’s no real change with the fundamentals.”

China is also a factor.

“Platinum jewelry demand in China is very strong at the moment,” wrote John Reade, UBS AG’s head metals strategist in London. He said the relatively small price difference between gold and platinum is “proving very attractive to manufacturers, retailers and consumers.”

Regarding gold, “Overall conditions still appear to favor a push toward higher values over the course of at least the next week,” said Kitco’s Jon Nadler. “The expected economic recovery is currently not being given high odds until sometime in 2010.”

“The dollar is still under some pressure,” said Stephen Platt, of Archer Financial Services in Chicago. “There’s growing concern that the U.S. monetary base is expanding. That’s helping foster renewed buying interest in gold.”

But Tom Hartmann, of AltaVest Worldwide Trading in Mission Viejo, California, cautioned that, “What’s holding gold back is that there’s no apparent inflation yet. Until that happens, gold is just going to hang around.”

Source: Gold, Silver Little Changed