Spot Gold Prices

Spot gold prices have rallied around 4 percent so far this month as mounting doubts over the Eurozone’s ability to tackle its two-year-old debt crisis drove investors to safe-haven assets and decoupled gold from other commodities, which it had followed through much of the past two months.US gold fell 0.9 percent to $1,783.50 an ounce. “The market is now running into the first technical resistances around $1,800 and the rally could slow down a little bit from here,” Credit Suisse said in a note.

Holdings of the largest gold-backed exchange-traded-fund (ETF), New York’s SPDR Gold Trust, gained 0.67 percent from Monday to Tuesday, while those of the largest silver-backed ETF, New York’s iShares Silver Trust, dipped 0.12 percent for the same period.

In Asia, China’s annual rate of inflation eased to 5.5 percent in October, the third straight month of decline from a three-year high of 6.5 percent hit in July and in line with analyst expectations.

But rising gold consumption in China, the world’s second-largest consumer after India, showed inflation remained a concern. China’s gold consumption is expected to jump nearly 50 percent to reach 400 tonnes this year, the China Securities Journal reported on Wednesday, citing China Gold Association President Sun Zhaoxue. In other precious metals, silver slipped 0.7 percent to $34,69 an ounce, while platinum fell 0.7 percent to $1,646.25 an ounce and palladium fell 1.1 percent to $660.50.