I've always said that fluctuations of $50 or so would be fairly common in this great gold bull. I'm not surprised one bit, and like the last paragraph in the article below says, the all time record is not very far away. --------------------------------------------------
PRECIOUS METALS: End Sharply Lower On Profit Taking, Oil, Dlr Mon, Nov 12 2007, 19:47 GMT http://www.djnewswires.com/eu/
PRECIOUS METALS: End Sharply Lower On Profit Taking, Oil, Dlr
By Matt Whittaker Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Precious metals fell Monday as lower crude oil prices and a stronger U.S. dollar sparked profit taking from gold to palladium, analysts said.
Precious metals traders booked profits after recent increases, said Carlos Sanchez, precious-metals analyst with CPM Group.
Comex gold ended down more than 3.2%, Nymex platinum more than 2.4% and New York palladium more than 1%. Silver had the largest percentage decline of the main precious metals traded in New York, off more than 5%.
"It's just a matter of time before we saw something like this," Sanchez said.
December gold fell $27 to $807.70 an ounce after breaking through the $800 level to hit a session low of $798.80 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. As pit trade was closing, the December contract at the Chicago Board of Trade was down $26.80 to $807.80.
"The market has really come a long way; it's time to take some profits," said Frank Lesh, broker and futures analyst with Future Path Trading. "There weren't any buyers at the $840s. At these levels up here you have to expect this kind of volatility and these kinds of moves."
The profit taking in gold came after a "strong spec-led runup" in prices was put to a halt Monday by a rising dollar and lower oil, said Michael Gross, broker and futures analyst with Liberty Trading.
As gold was closing, the dollar was up more than 0.8% on an ICE Futures U.S. index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies. Nymex December crude was down $1.51 at $94.81 a barrel.
The very soft close in gold and silver could portend the start of a deeper correction, a floor source said.
"We view this retreat by gold as a technical reaction to the advances last week," a Commerzbank research note said. "Market players increasingly fear a strong correction once supporting factors, such as the galloping oil market and the weak U.S. dollar, start to wane."
However, Commerzbank said: "We remain very positive about gold medium term and are convinced that the all-time record from 1980 will be broken in the coming months."
