Bentonville, AR -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/24/2012 -- Gold remains steady on Tuesday while developments in the struggle of Greece with its debt is keeping investors busy. This is after Athens has postponed decision on whether to accept the conditions of a new bailout plan.

Precious metals dropped to a 1.5-week low in the past sessions after sentiment on Greece's possible default continues to warrant concern.

Most of the markets went down while investors are still undecided if the Greek crisis will eventually be solved or spark a financial breakdown among other countries in the Eurozone that are already vulnerable.

Gold barely changed in the US at USD1,724.

Even though price of gold dropped for 2 successive sessions, experts and traders are saying that the gold's long-term affirmative trend still remains, backed by the demand on a shady international economic viewpoint and the hopes of financial easing in the key markets of the world.

The US jobs information knocked down the spot gold to almost 2% on Friday while it reduced hopes for a new quantitative easing in the near future. However, the very loose financial policy of US Federal Reserve can aid in boosting gold when considering the long-term.

A critical support level for gold will be USD 1,680 while spot gold can drop to USD 1,696 during the day.

According to HSBC, they are keeping their 2012 mean gold forecast at USD 1,850 per ounce because of positive international monetary policies and investor fears regarding the financial markets.

The decrease in gold prices has tempted several buying in Asia, such as China and India. However, investors are still waiting on the sidelines before they decide on what to do in Japan.

An official in Tokyo remarked that everyone seems to be keeping watch on what is going to unfold but they have not seen any interest on selling or buying.

Meanwhile, the discount for bars of gold in Tokyo has increased to 75 cents per ounce from 50 cents in January.

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Bentonville, AR -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/20/2012 -- Exchange traded funds that invest in silver were the top performers among unleveraged ETFs on Tuesday as funds indexed to gold and miner stocks also burst out of the gate to start 2012.

The iShares Silver Trust (NYSEArca:SLV), PowerShares DB Silver Fund (NYSEArca: DBS) and ETFS Physical Silver Shares (NYSEArca: SIVR) all gained 7% in afternoon trading Tuesday. Silver saw its largest one-day percentage jump in over three years, according to reports.

Meanwhile, SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD) added 2.4% while Market Vectors Gold Miners (NYSEArca: GDX) rallied 3.7%.

Precious metal and miner ETFs stumbled into the end of 2011 but surged on the first trading day of the new year. [Gold Miner ETFs Hit Low]

The rally carried the gold bullion ETF to within striking distance of its 200-day moving average. Gold prices also climbed back above $1,600 an ounce.

Gold rebounded after sentiment on the metal fell to the lowest readings in about three years, leading some to conclude gold was oversold.

Last week, MarketVane's Bullish Consensus for gold fell to 56%, the lowest since Dec. 5, 2008, according to a MarketWatch report.

A weaker dollar also provided a tailwind for precious metals – PowerShares DB US Dollar Bullish (NYSEArca: UUP) slipped 1% on Tuesday. [Euro Shorts Squeezed as ETFs Jump]

"The first levels for gold are the round number, $1,600, and above that the resistance is provided by what was formerly the support, which is the 200-day moving average which is around $1,630," Credit Suisse analyst Tom Kendall said in a Reuters report.

The gold ETF gained about 10% in 2011.

SPDR Gold Shares

Full disclosure: Tom Lydon's clients own GLD and SLV.
Full disclosure: John Spence owns ZSL.

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