* Palladium gains 2 percent to 1-week high
* Gold technically neutral with upside bias []
* Coming up: Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke Q+A; 2010 GMT
By Rujun Shen
SINGAPORE, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Gold gained half a percent on
Wednesday, supported by the weakness in the dollar, after
minutes of a Federal Reserve meeting showed monetary easing
might be needed soon, while palladium rose to its highest level
in a week.
U.S. Federal Reserve officials believed in September the
struggling recovery might soon need more help, and they
discussed several ways to provide support, including the
possible adoption of a price-level target. []
The dollar paused its rebound and edged lower against a
basket of currencies on Wednesday. []
Bullion has been trading in a narrow range of less than $20
this week, and is seen to be consolidating after a
record-breaking rally took gold to an all-time high of $1,364.6
last week. Bullish sentiment is intact, traders and analysts
said.
"There's been a lot of positive sentiment run by the dollar
weakness fuelled by the possibility of QE (quantitative
easing)," said Mark Pervan, senior commodities analyst at ANZ,
adding that the accommodating stance in the U.S. monetary
policy would propel precious metals to new record highs.
"The markets are buying on a dip, and pushing things
higher. (For gold), $1,400 is probably on the radar for the
next two to three months. No problem."
Spot gold <XAU=> rose 0.5 percent to $1,356.55 an ounce by
0305 GMT, regaining ground lost in the previous session.
U.S. gold futures for December delivery <GCZ0> gained 0.8
percent to $1,357.5.
Physical demand remains strong, and scrap selling is
scarce, as market players bet on a further rally in prices,
dealers said.
"We have not seen much gold scrap being sold to the market.
People are waiting for higher prices," said a Hong Kong-based
dealer. "Physical demand is still at a high level."
Gold is technically neutral as it is rangebound between
$1,340 and $1,357, and a further development of the chart is
needed to confirm its next move, said Wang Tao, a Reuters
market analyst. []
For a graphic of the 24-hour gold technical outlook:
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/WT/20101310064104.jpg
Spot palladium <XPD=> rose as much as 2.3 percent to a
one-week high of $593.50 an ounce, before easing to $588.50.
The platinum-palladium ratio, or the number of ounces of
palladium used to buy an ounce of platinum, fell to 2.87, its
lowest in more than seven years.
Supporting the sentiment in palladium, Russian miner
Norilsk Nickel <GMKN.MM>, the world's biggest producer of the
metal, said it expected Russian state stocks of palladium to be
depleted next year.[]
Platinum <XPT=> rose nearly one percent to $1,691.50 an
ounce. It reached a five-month high of $1,725.5 last week.
recious metals prices at 0305 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 1356.55 6.95 +0.51 23.81
Spot Silver 23.48 0.20 +0.86 39.51
Spot Platinum 1691.50 16.50 +0.99 15.30
Spot Palladium 588.50 8.50 +1.47 45.13
TOCOM Gold 3577.00 30.00 +0.85 9.76
27093
TOCOM Platinum 4480.00 23.00 +0.52 2.26
9559
TOCOM Silver 62.10 1.50 +2.48 20.12
783
TOCOM Palladium 1563.00 26.00 +1.69 34.16
524
Euro/Dollar 1.3968
Dollar/Yen 81.83
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
