gold news from the wires..

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SPOT NY CLOSE * SUPPORT * RESIST * RSI14 * MA10 * MA30
GOLD 354.30/5.05 * 350.00 * 355.00 * 62 * 349.74 * 339.40
SILVER 4.85/4.87 * 4.80 * 4.90 * 57 * 4.81 * 4.69
PLAT 620.00/5.00 * 580.00 * 650.00 * 76 * 608.76 * 598.38
----------------- VIEWS FROM THE MARKET - Jan 13 --------------
LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Ongoing geopolitical and economic
worries were seen keeping the gold market supported and the
dollar vulnerable, despite a slight dip in prices in early
Monday trade in Europe, traders and analysts said.
The precious metal ended last week just off its
near-six-year highs with the looming threat of war in Iraq, a
shaky U.S. dollar and the North Korean crisis over its nuclear
programme.
Early trade was low key, following the muted tone in Asia
due to the closure of the Japanese TOCOM to mark a national
holiday.
Traders were closely following developments in the Gulf
region and also keeping an eye on oil prices, following OPEC's
weekend announcement to increase output by 1.5 million barrels a
day to compensate for the current decline in supply from
Venezuala.

GOLD - The safehaven metal stalled on Friday just below last
week's near-six-year high at $356.50, but any further weakness
was expected to attract buying.
"Predicting the price direction of gold is never an exact
science at the best of times and it is even more difficult than
usual at present," Standard Bank said in a daily note.
"However we do expect dips to find good support as the build
up of military hardware and personnel continues in the Gulf."
It added however that resistance at $357 was proving notably
tough to crack.
Triland Metals said in a weekly metals report that the
current bull trend "looks pretty much exhausted now" much beyond
the $357/58 level, adding however that underlying technicals
remain supportive which could point to further gains in coming
weeks.
At 0826 GMT spot gold was quoted at $352.75/353.50 an
ounce, down from Friday's close in New York at $354.30/355.05.

SILVER - Following a disappointing performance last week
relative to other precious metals, silver could see further
losses especially if gold weakens further, analysts said.
At 0826 GMT silver was quoted at $4.83/4.85, down a
little from Friday's close at $4.85/4.87.
"Resistance located at $4.90 still provides the market with
a stiff obstacle to overcome if silver is to make a positive
move over $5.00," Standard Bank said.
Triland Metals expected any dips to meet with good demand
around $4.70/72 and unless the white metal fails again to breach
the $5.00 level, then further upmoves were in sight in due
course.

PLATINUM AND PALLADIUM - Platinum looked set for further
gains if lease rates continue to tighten, with dealers keeping a
close eye on the forward market for near term direction,
analysts said.
Palladium, which has seen an impressive recovery from
mid-December's multi-year lows at $219.00 an ounce to touch a
high of $275.00 on Monday, could be vulnerable to a setback.
"Palladium's short-covering rally continued on Friday, but
it may now be approaching a long-term sale level," Standard Bank
said.
At 0822 GMT spot palladium was quoted at
$264.00/270.00, unchanged from Friday's close, while platinum
was last at $620.00/625.00, equally unchanged on Friday.