Spot gold traded at $1765.65 an ounce on Thursday morning after failing to close above the $1800 level over the past three days.
 
Gold has benefited from upheaval in Italy and Greece over the past three weeks, with investors seen increasing their exposure to the precious metal on fear that that the two countries will eventually default on their debt obligations – a scenario that would most likely lead to a breakup of the region. Ongoing economic uncertainty in the eurozone will continue to drive demand for gold in my view. According to Blackrock, gold exchange-traded products received $2 billion of net inflows in October. The world’s largest asset manager also said that inflows into gold ETPs over the first ten months of the year were $7.3 billion. They ‘expect to see continued investor demand for gold in the months ahead’ due to economic uncertainty.
 
Separate data compiled by Bloomberg showed that gold options traders were placing the most bullish bets on the commodity since August. Calls to buy SPDR Gold Trust outnumber puts to sell by 1.5-to-1, the most since 8 August. Gold’s weakness on Thursday morning is predominantly due to a revival in hopes for the eurozone, after Italy managed to sell €5 billion worth of one-year debt at a lower-than-expected yield of 6.087%. However, in the greater scheme of things the eurozone is unlikely to see any quick fixes. The overall trend in the price of gold remains bullish with strong support seen between the $1724 and $1700 levels.