Sentiment for gold remains bullish as traders await ECB/Payrolls

by James Moore The Bullion Desk London, 03 July 2008 - Gold is holding close to the 10-week highs set earlier this week, and looks set for a busy day ahead as the ECB meets to set European interest rates while US traders will be positioning themselves ahead of the long Independence Day weekend. EUR/USD is little changed from Wednesday’s close of 1.5888 with the ECB expected to raise interest rates 25-bp. Also scheduled for release today are June Non-Farm Payrolls, expected to show a decline of 40,000, the ISM Service Index and Jobless Claims for the week of June 28th. Oil prices have set a fresh record overnight with NYMEX crude for August trading to $144.57/barrel. Gold was confined to a $3.50 range in Asia before drifting lower in early Europe as the dollar found support. Gold posted a low of $931.55 but was prevented from... [read full story]