Precious metals flash

Precious metals trading cooled down yesterday, which was also reflected by 56% less volume on the August Comex Gold future compared to Friday. A few sell stops were triggered on the move below 1515 and 1510, or if against Euro below 1300. Talk of the day were the large Chinese imports of Gold from Hong Kong, which stood at 102 tons, versus 34 tons of exports. This leaves the net import number at 67.4 tons, the third highest ever recorded, which would be fundamentally bullish. There is also that high number of exports, which remains unexplained. Global markets start friendly today, following on reports that the G7 will hold a conference call today to discuss Europe, interest rate cut hopes by the ECB tomorrow and Bernanke’s JEC testimony due on Thursday, where hopes are placed on a hint to QE3. 1600 and 1630 seems to remain the range for the moment in Gold.