Gold May Return To Record If ECB Steps Up Firefighting Role-ING

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Gold may be on track for a return to record highs and any
significant step by the European Central Bank to ramp up its role in battling
the euro zone's debt crisis, as was hinted by ECB president Mario Draghi last
week, could be the driver that gets it there, ING Investment Management's
senior commodity strategist said Tuesday. "The previous peak is definitely
possible, but we are waiting for ECB action. That could be the final trigger
for going back up there," Koen Straetmans said in an interview with Dow Jones
Newswires.
The gold market has been largely stuck in a range between $1,650 a troy ounce
to $1,800/oz since toppling from a record high of $1,920.94/oz in September. At
0808 GMT, the spot price of gold was $1,730.05 a troy ounce--up $2.45, or 0.1%,
on the day.
Draghi has signaled the ECB could beef up its role in tackling the crisis if
euro-zone governments enforce tougher deficit cutting.
While he stopped short of promising unlimited purchases of euro-zone bonds,
as a number of European policy makers have called for, his comments have raised
the prospect that the ECB is willing to do significantly more.