breaking climb should continue for at least six months, corresponding to the planned duration of the Federal Reserve's monetary stimulus, according to a Reuters poll conducted on Thursday and Friday. Two out of three respondents see gold prices topping out between $1,400 and $1,500 an ounce on an interim basis, with most analysts surveyed expecting prices to peak during the first or second quarter of next year. Thirteen of the 20 analysts, traders and fund managers polled by Reuters said the price of bullion will remain in an uptrend well into the first half of 2011, after the Fed Wednesday unleashed a program to buy $600 billion of government bonds in a new round of quantitative easing (QE). The Fed's QE package has reinforced the argument for holding gold, as it pushes the dollar firmly onto a downward path and raises the risk of inflation.
