GOLD‏

Consolidation in a nervous and thin market was taking place yesterday in gold. It tested the support at $ 1560 several times but found good bids down there and boucned off that level. Physical demand has been substancial in the last 2 trading days. The oversold situation from the previous day eased on the hourly chart and technicaly we are now in neutral territory. In the options: After a sharp spike in vols on wednesday, consolidation set in there as well and vols are a bit off the highs. In the news: SNB left interest rates unchanged and leaves EUR exchange rate floor at 1.20. CHF extended gains agains USD and EUR on back of this news.Some reports are mentioning quite a few hedge fund closures this week,probably due to under-performance, and this might have led to some heavy liquidation of long Gold positions. same story....cut the good positions to pay for the bad. Have a nice weekend.