Daily Gold Update

Source: Marketwatch.com

San Francisco— Gold futures fell over $4 an ounce Wednesday, but still logged 6% gain for the month with the front-month contract hitting the key $500 level twice this week in overnight trading sessions.

"For now gold should hold around $492-$498, although further liquidation cannot be ruled out," said James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com in London.

"At some point soon the metal will make a sustained push above $500 and will continue on to test chart resistance pegged at $503/$509," he said.

December gold closed at $494.60 an ounce in New York, down $4.50 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It touched $500 Tuesday evening and climbed as high as $502.30 in Monday's overnight session — a level not seen since December 1987.

The contract closed up $27.70 from its end-of-October level. It was also up $2.30 from the level it closed at a week ago, which marked the end of the Thanksgiving holiday-shortened week.

December silver fell 1.6 cents to close at $8.28 an ounce Wednesday — up 9.2% for the month.

At the same time, December copper futures continued to reach record levels, closing up 3.45 cents at $2.075 after a high of $2.075. It posted a 14.6% gain over last month's close.

Copper's rally has partly been driven by speculation that China is being forced to buy massive quantities of the industrial metal to cover a short position taken by a rogue copper dealer.

Elsewhere in the metals market, January platinum dropped $22.80 to finish at $980.40 an ounce. It climbed as high as $1,004 Monday, its highest since March 1980. For the month, it climbed $37.20.

Sister metal palladium saw its December contract fall $7.90 to close at $255.50 an ounce, up 12.5% from a month ago.

Inventories of copper and silver were unchanged as of late Tuesday, according to Nymex. Copper supplies were at 3,681 short tons and silver at 117.6 million troy ounces. Gold supplies rose 54,809 troy ounces to 6.61 million.