Asian Shoppers Snap Up Gold

Gold last traded at $1,740 an ounce. Silver at $25.75 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices steadied Monday as bond yields eased and the dollar fell. U.S. stocks rose as investors hoped for a bounce back as tech stocks were boosted by Tesla's price rebound.

Bloomberg--"Gold prices are near a nine-month low, which is drawing jewelry shoppers in Asia to hunt for bargains...Retailers are buying more of the precious metal to cater to people like Seema B, a 35-year-old housewife who ventured to Mumbai's Zaveri Bazaar to get new bangles after months of putting it off. 'The prices have come down a bit and the general worries about the virus have also eased,' she said.

Seema joins others in India and Malaysia who are stocking up for weddings and investment. Retail investors in South Korea are amassing bullion while Chinese demand drove sales higher over the Lunar New Year....

When financial investors aren't buying, 'the physical market becomes increasingly important in setting the floor for prices,' said Suki Cooper, a precious metals analyst at Standard Chartered Bank. 'The gold price floor is starting to look well cushioned.'....

​Jewelers in India see the momentum lasting until the auspicious gold-buying day of Akshaya Tritiya in May. Kumar Jain, owner of U.T. Zaveri store in Mumbai, expects his sales to almost double in the January-March period from a year earlier and is optimistic about the coming quarter too.

'We have seen the best demand in the past month since the virus fear emerged in March last year, as customers came out to buy for weddings thinking prices will go up further,' he said."