On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold continues to draw direction from the U.S. dollar and fluctuating oil prices.
December gold settled up $7.10 at $595.40 a troy ounce. During the session the contract traded to weekly high of $598 an ounce but faced strong resistance up to the psychologically important $600 level.
"We believe that for the short-term gold remains bounded by the $570-$595 range and will continue to draw direction form the dollar and oil prices," said analysts at MKS Finance in a daily market comment.
The move of the energy portfolio from beleaguered hedge fund Amaranth to JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Citadel Investment Group may have softened the blow of what many market players thought would be a massive liquidation in the energy market that could have stretched into the metals arena, said George Gero of RBC Capital Markets Global Futures.
"The liquidation is not likely to come so traders are covering shorts in (Comex) gold," says Gero.
December silver hit a nearly two-week high of $11.49 an ounce but closed at $11.31 an ounce, up 6.5 cents.
October platinum settled up $8.60 at $1,148.10 an ounce.
December palladium settled up $12.65 at $321.65 an ounce. The contract hit a weekly high of $326.80 an ounce during the session.
December copper settled up 1.20 cents at $3.4435 per pound. During the day session the contract traded as high as $3.4850 _ its best level in two weeks.
