Gold prices staged a mild rebound Thursday in Asia on relief buying after they were slammed overnight over a host of concerns, disregarding for the moment optimism over the U.S. fiscal-cliff talks that boosted other risk assets.
The mild recovery followed a convergence of technical selling, deflationary concerns and U.S. dollar strength that sank December futures by $25.80 during Wednesday’s regular session on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract had slumped as much as $36.80 at one point.
But analysts differed on the outlook for gold prices.
“The sell-off has shaken out many weaker buyers who will now be looking to sell the rallies rather than buy the dips,” said Fawad Razaqzada, a technical analyst at GFT Markets.
“We believe that such significant liquidation is unlikely to be repeated, and that gold prices will tend to stabilize above $1,700 [an ounce],” said James Steel, an analyst at HSBC Securities.
Gold’s most actively traded futures contract, meant for delivery in February GCG3 +0.20%, also climbed 0.3% to $1,723.20, while spot prices gained $1 to $1,720.80.
The advance came as the ICE dollar index DXY -0.04% , a gauge of the greenback’s moves against a basket of six other major currencies, was little changed at 80.268, compared with 80.262 in North American trade late Wednesday.
Gold investors also appeared to shrug off U.S. President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner’s optimism that lawmakers would reach an agreement to avert the fiscal cliff.
Uncertainty related to the cliff — a reference to the possibility that $600 billion worth of tax increases and spending cuts will kick in from January unless politicians reach an agreement — has tended to lure investors to gold’s safe-haven appeal in the recent past. A stronger dollar also usually hurts gold prices.
Among other metals, December futures for silver SIZ2 -0.01% and copper HGZ2 +0.28% rose 0.2% to $33.74 an ounce and 0.1% to $3.53 a pound, respectively.
Palladium futures PAZ2 -0.27% for delivery in the same month slipped 0.2% to $672 an ounce.
January platinum futures PLF3 -0.07% lost 0.2% to $1,608.60 an ounce.
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Greece will enter its seventh year of recession in 2014 before the country’s economy begins to rebound in 2015, according to estimates in a report issued on Tuesday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which also urges support for the social groups that have been hit hardest by the crisis. 
