(Updates prices)
By Lewa Pardomuan
LONDON, May 14 (Reuters) - Gold steadied on Wednesday after
the dollar reversed gains against the euro, with demand from
jewellers in Asia and the Middle East also helping the metal
rebound from a one-week trough.
Spot gold <XAU=> hit a low of $859.30 an ounce, its lowest
level since May 5, before bouncing to $866.60/867.60 an ounce,
steady from $866.55/867.95 late in New York on Tuesday.
In other precious metals, platinum briefly dipped below
$2,000 an ounce before rebounding on bargain hunting.
"The physical activity is quite good. It's not as good as it
was a couple of weeks ago, but it's still reasonable," said
Frederic Panizzutti, metals analyst at MKS Finance, referring to
physical demand in Asia and the Middle East.
= "We see, generally speaking, only little buying interest
from Europe for either physical or non-physical. We expect the
market to get back to gold and push it higher but you need to
consolidate somewhere between $850 and $950."
Gold has lost more than 16 percent in value since spiking to
a lifetime high of $1,030.80 an ounce on March 17, mostly driven
by profit-taking and the dollar's recovery.
Some analysts pegged key support around $860, which if
broken, could drag down the price to $848. The upside target was
pegged at $891 an ounce.
The dollar erased gains versus the euro after U.S. consumer
prices rose 0.2 percent in April -- less than the 0.3 percent
gain Wall Street analysts polled by Reuters were expecting after
a 0.3 percent advance in March. []
In the physical market in Asia, dealers noted buying from
Indonesia and Vietnam but demand from India, the world's largest
consumer, slowed down after the end of the busy festival season.
Premiums for gold bars were steady at 80 U.S. cents an ounce
against the spot London prices in Singapore <GOLD/ASIA1>.
The most active June gold futures contract <GCM8> on the
COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $2.5 to
$867.1 an ounce but off the intraday low of $860 an ounce.
"We still favour further downside in gold, silver and
palladium as a combination of dollar strength, and profit-taking
should weigh on these metals," UBS Investment Bank said in a
client note.
Spot platinum <XPT=> hit an intraday low of $1,997 an ounce,
but then rebounded to $2,012.50/2,032.50 an ounce. It was still
down from $2,037.50 late in New York and well below a record
high of $2,290 an ounce hit on March 4.
Palladium <XPD=> fell to $426.50/434.50 an ounce from
$430.50/438.50 in late New York, having earlier hit a low of
$422 an ounce.
Silver <XAG=> rose to $16.78/16.83 an ounce
from $16.66/16.72 in New York.
(Editing by Ben Tan)
