Gold bounced on Friday after a drop from a one-month high spurred buying from bargain hunters, but jewelers stayed on the sidelines, awaiting clues from the energy market. Spot gold firmed to $922.30/923.30 an ounce from $917.60/918.80 an ounce late in New York on Thursday, when it jumped to its highest in more than a month at $935.30 before falling sharply on profit taking and as oil trimmed gains. “To be honest, probably we are going to remain, obviously, very volatile,” said James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com. “Certainly sentiment has improved considerably since we were down below or even struggling to get above $890. I would say somewhere in the region of $910-$945 would be probably the range for the week,” said Moore, referring to next week's range. Gold has struggled to sustain the uptrend since spiking to a lifetime high of $1,030.80 an ounce on March 17, falling to a four-month low of $845 an ounce in early May as investors booked profits. Oil held near $132 a barrel on Friday, recovering a little from a bout of profit-taking on the previous day that pulled prices back more than three percent from the record high above $135 a barrel. In theory, expensive oil lifts gold's appeal as a hedge against inflation. “Resistance is still around the $935-$940 area, so unless we see a retest of that region soon, we may just head down towards the $900-$905 supports,” said Adrian Koh, an analyst at Philip Futures in Singapore. “I think physical buying will probably come around the supports of $900-$905 levels. But if they think prices will go up much more, then i think now is a good time.” Gold futures for June delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange added $5.0 an ounce to $923.3 an ounce. In other precious metals, platinum regained some footing after falling from a two-month high the previous day as speculators booked profits. Spot platinum firmed to $2,164.00/2,184.00 an ounce from $2,156.50/2,176.50. Certainly the fundamentals remain very bullish. Fresh highs above $2,300 are quite easily on the cards, either in the next few weeks and certainly the later part of the year.
