Gold prices rose more than 1 percent and silver popped nearly 2 percent Tuesday on fresh evidence the struggling U.S. housing industry is recovering plus rising German business sentiment that boosted investors' risk appetite.
Gold prices will fall below $1,500 an ounce over the next three months and are unlikely to retest September's all-time highs until later 2012 at the earliest, according to a Reuters poll of 20 hedge fund managers, economists and traders.
Gold prices hovered in a tight range Monday as doubts that Eurozone banks have enough access to cash and the uncertainties about the severity of the continent's recession offset physical demand from Asian buyers.
Gold prices will fall below $1,500 an ounce over the next three months and are unlikely to retest September's all-time highs until later next year at the earliest, according to a Reuters poll of 20 hedge-fund managers, economists, and traders.
The second-biggest slump in gold prices since the financial crisis has rattled bullion bulls, as implied volatility in the gold options market is subdued, suggesting the bullion is seeking to find a new range.
Gold prices extended losses to a fourth session Thursday but the decline was far less than the previous day's plunge as weaker crude oil prices offset support from dollar weakness.
A dash for cash has overwhelmed gold's traditional status as a haven from risk, putting the metal on course for its first quarterly fall since end-September 2008, when the global credit crunch was at its worst.
Gold prices Thursday appeared to halt the previous session's big plunge, though prospects they were carving a bottom defied the extent of damage precious metals prices suffered.
Spot gold weakened further on Thursday after dropping 3.5 percent in the previous session, as investors remained nervous about the eurozone debt crisis amid the year-end rush to liquidate positions.
The bottom dropped out of gold prices Friday as technical supports collapsed, hedge fund managers turned holdings into cash and a surging dollar killed any vestige of physical demand.
Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. and its Indonesian union signed a pay deal on Wednesday to end a three-month strike that had paralysed output at the world's second-biggest copper mine, a union official and the company said.
Gold prices fell for a third consecutive day Wednesday -- extending a weeklong plunge to more than 6 percent -- after the U.S. central bank warned that slowing global growth threatens the nation's weak recovery.
Gold prices slipped Tuesday, its seventh consecutive daily decline, to a two-month low as the dollar posted big gains in light trading.
Gold prices tumbled to a six-week low Monday as bank selling and a skyrocketing dollar offset support from central bank buying.
Gold prices dropped 1.8 percent Monday as the dollar rose on disappointment with last week's Eurozone summit and key price support for gold failed.
Gold prices eked out a small gain Friday after Eurozone leaders agreed to surrender some of their national fiscal sovereignty to prevent another debt crisis and U.S. economic reports signaled a growing recovery.
Gold prices edged higher Friday after Eurozone leaders, in their eighth sovereign debt crisis summit this year, agreed to craft a treaty that will limit the ability of members to run-up unsustainable government debts.
Gold prices tumbled more than two percent Thursday after the European Central Bank doused hopes that it would accelerate purchases of debt-choked Eurozone nations.
Gold prices fell Thursday as the European Central Bank head tapped down hopes of more government bond buying, hammering the euro and boosting the dollar.
Gold prices, like global stocks and major currencies, hardly moved Thursday as investors waited to see if Europe would manage to stanch its debt crisis and avoid a recession, or worse.
Gold prices rose Wednesday as purchases by cost-conscious investors offset worries about the Eurozone debt crisis and a rising dollar.
Gold prices barely moved Wednesday ahead of a key Eurozone summit global that investors hope will finally produce a viable solution to Europe's 2-year-old debt crisis.