Investors pared bullish commodity bets on signs of slowing growth in China and as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its recommendation on raw materials.

New York 30/03/2012 - Gold futures ended the quarter on a positive note with some last-minute window dressing and a stronger euro lending support to the precious metals complex.

London 30/03/2012 - Gold was slightly higher still on Friday afternoon, reflecting a slightly stronger along euro after eurozone leaders consented to boost the size of their bailout fund to relieve the region's debt crisis.

STANDARD BANK DAILY

STANDARD BANK DAILY

- Gold futures firmed on Friday along with the euro after eurozone finance ministers agreed in principle to increase the size of their bailout pot temporarily to combat the spread of the sovereign debt crisis.

London 30/03/2012 - The second quarter of the year is seasonally the strongest period and will be supportive for world manufacturing and hence commodity demand, UK bank RBS said on Friday.

PRECIOUS-Gold edges up on weaker dollar after China, US data

The absence of clear direction ahead of today’s Eurozone ECONFIN meeting and month/quarter-end continued to keep markets as a whole in a mixed directionless mood yesterday. The precious metals were no exception with complex overshadowed by negative technical indicators while dollar gains during US trade weighed on the metals; the metals traded down a net 1% before recovering to settle down 0.4%.

London 30/03/2012 - The metals put in a mixed performance yesterday, which given the early weakness in equities and the firmer dollar was surprising. However, further damage was done intraday with aluminium breaking support at $ 2,151 and $2,148 and joining nickel and lead as the weaker metals. Copper reached a low of $8,286, before closing at $8,360, so is still holding above key support levels at $8,262, $8,176 and $8,131. Overall the metals dropped by an average of 0.3 percent, with lead, zinc and tin showing gains, while the rest were lower.

* Spot gold headed for 6-pct quarterly gain, 2-pct monthly fall * Physical demand remains weak in Asia * Coming Up: Euro zone finance ministers' meeting

London 29/03/2012 - UBS has revised its 2012 metals price forecasts, taking a more bullish view on copper and the platinum group metals (PGMs) but downgrading gold, nickel and iron ore on the likelihood of fewer government liquidity boosts and lower Chinese growth.

London 29/03/2012 - Gold fell in afternoon trading on Thursday on fresh eurozone economy fears that weakened the euro at the expense of the dollar.

Base Metals

- Gold pared earlier losses after a forecast-missing US unemployment claims report emboldened traders who expect the Federal Reserve to launch a third round of quantitative easing (QE3) later this year.