Gold and Silver Volatile, Platinum Plummets as European Turmoil Continues

Losses stacked up on commodity and equity markets again on Thursday, sending investors to the US dollar and US Gilts. The consensus among comentators on the reason for the panic seemed to point to worries over global growth today rather than the sovereign debt crisis that caused carnage earlier in the week.

Gold was weaker, but volatile, being bounced about by safe haven buyers and those trying to grab cash to make likely margin calls on investments in other markets.

In a market curiously sensitive to round numbers Gold also found selling pressure as it threatened to breach, and then did breach the psychologically significant 1,000 euro level.

Platinum however was by far the worst casualty as the London afternoon fix settled at $1,515.00 down some $97 or 6% on the previous afternoon, largely on worries that slower global growth will damage demand for the metal with wide spread uses in the auto and catalytic converter industries.

In this context Gold looked comparatively strong being down less than 1% on the day, many analysts now believe that technically Gold is looking oversold, particularly in view of its status as a currency hedge, but the next few days could be key.

BullionSupermarket.com reported increased demand as small coin and bar buyers looked to bag a bargain. Traffic was up some 20.7% on average, with heavy emphasis on Gold accounting for some 75.6% of price comparisons performed by the service during the day.