gold

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch says given largely
unchanged fundamentals, the house maintains its 12-month price target of
$2,000/oz. "Investors will likely remain net gold buyers," the house says in a
note. It notes that through 2H11, assets under management at physical
exchange-traded funds, typically bought by longer-term investors, have held up,
suggesting markets have not gone through a broad re-assessment of gold's
fundamentals. Based on the weekly financial statements of the European Central
Bank and comments by it's officials, the house says gold assets under the
management of central banks have held steady. However, the ECB statements do
not report temporary transactions of gold holdings, it notes. The house says
that "it is perceivable that some monetary authorities-and also commercial
banks-may have utilized gold holdings to see themselves through temporary
funding squeezes." Spot gold is at $1,615.40/oz, up $4.40 from Monday's close.<<EOS>>