LONDON, Dec 16 - Gold resumed its upwards march on Tuesday in Europe after a brief stumble the previous day as the dollar slithered to fresh all-time lows against the euro as Monday's bounce in the greenback proved temporary. The precious metal came to within just over $1 of last week's near eight-year high during Asian trading and then retreated marginally, with traders awaiting the release of U.S. data on Tuesday. The current account balance for the third quarter 2003 will be published at 1330 GMT, with median forecasts pegged at a deficit of $136 billion, slightly below last quarter's $138 billion deficit. Spot gold was indicated at $409.40/409.90 by 1051 GMT, gaining on New York's late quote on Monday of $408.75/409.50. Gold was fixed at $409.50 in London's morning session, up from $407.50 previously. The euro rose to its latest record high of $1.2361 and was last quoted at around $1.2350. "The greenback will be the major trigger for the metal price," Dresnder Kleinwort Wassterstein (DKW) said in a daily report. "While staying above $409, the gold price is now targeting $412....Further gains are likely if it moves through the latter." Gold is hovering just below its highest since early February 1996 and peaked in that year at $417.70. A breach of that high would take gold back to its strongest in just under 13 years. "The dollar is weak, commodities -- and that includes the base metals -- are currently sexy and as a consequence of that, the gold market is making an inexorable march to $420," Peter Hillyard, head of metal sales at ANZ investment bank, said. He said he expected gold to reach that level by Christmas and said gold's dip on Monday had simply given investors another opportunity to buy, which they had seized.
PLATINUM STRONG
Platinum struck yet another 23-year high on Tuesday -- at $830 an ounce -- before slipping back to trade at unchanged levels of $825.00/830.00. "A never-ending story: Platinum keeps on climbing and finding new multi-year highs on a daily basis," DKW said, adding that a test of $840 could not be ruled out for the time being. Platinum rose rapidly from $750 in January 1980 to a peak of $1,047.50 in March 1980, before subsiding equally rapidly to around $500-600 an ounce in April, basis the fix. Traders also noted that short-term forward rates, or the cost of borrowing the metal in international markets, had tightened over the past week although some attributed the move to year-end book dressing. Silver was a touch firmer at $5.65/5.67 versus the previous day's $5.62/6.64, while palladium weakened to $201.00/206.00 from $203.00/208.00.//