gold comments asian trade close

..the only comment i am going to make is...gold is in a primary uptrend and there is still quite abit of skepticism for the yellow metal.

HONG KONG, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Spot gold eased in light trade
in Asia on Thursday, with many players content to sit on their
long positions and keep a close watch on volatile oil and
currency markets, dealers said.
Spot gold was trading at US$353.80/4.30 an ounce at
0515 GMT, lower than the Hong Kong open at US$354.00/5.00 and
compared with New York's last quoted US$353.80/4.55.
Gold hit an early high of US$354.50, at the start of the day
but traded below US$354 for most of the day.
This is well off the 2003 high of US$356.25 during European
hours on Monday as concerns grew that the U.S. was closer to
launching an attack on Iraq.
"I think that gold is looking fairly strong, but
realistically, it has tested the top all of my targets," said
Jeff Penman, chief dealer at Westpac Banking Corp in Sydney.
"If it touches that again (US$356), I think that would be
reasonable resistance," Penman said.
Upward pressure on bullion is coming fundamentally from
rising crude oil prices, and technically from weakness in the
U.S. dollar.
Bullion dealers said they would be watching for the outcome
of an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) on January 12.
The cartel will consider whether to raise the cartels' daily
production, last set at 23 million barrels a day in December.
The dollar is still holding above recent lows against the
yen, but remains weak, trading at 118.99/9.01 yen at 0515 GMT on
Thursday.
Gold Aussie was holding at A$612.43/3.83 an ounce,
after bouncing back from a low of A$584 on Wednesday. The
contract's three-and-a-half-year rally is stalled again, after
hitting A$625.11 on December 20, its highest level in more than
15 years.
Chart-wise, spot gold's recent run and turned an overheated
technical picture into a positive scenario, traders said.
"All indicators are on fire, if still a bit overbought," said
a trader with a U.S. bank in Singapore
"The bulls will put the new near-term trading range at
US$350-356," the trader added.
On Thursday, St Barbara Mines Ltd of Australia and
Geomaque Explorations Ltd. of Canada announced that they
would merge and acquire UK-based Midas Gold plc.
The merged company is to be called Defiance Mining Corp. It
will be headquartered in Toronto and aims to boost production to
350,000 ounces in 2005, up from a projected output of 100,000
ounces in 2003.
On the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM), the benchmark
December gold futures <0#JAU:> were trading 14 yen higher at
1,352 yen on active trade of 49,768 contracts.
Hong Kong tael gold , which is traded on the Chinese
Gold and Silver Exchange, ended the morning session at HK$3,283 a
tael, lower than the open at HK$3,288.
A tael is equal to 1.203 ounces of gold.
Spot silver was trading at US$4.84/4.86 an
ounce, lower than the Hong Kong open at US$4.86/4.88.
US$:HK$7.8