LONDON (Commodity Online): Where will gold prices head for? That is the billion dollar question haunting investors now. With contradicting signals emerging from various markets across the globe, analysts are caught in a spot with their predictions going haywire.

Take the case of Asian markets and London, the price of gold this week reversed slight losses, rising to see a slight gain at $939.85 at the start of New York trade. Gold price then fell to see a $6.75 loss at $932.65, but it rallied back into the close and ended with a loss of just 0.4 per cent. The gold price in Euros fell to €663.

Crude-oil futures, used by some investors as an indicator of the outlook for inflation, fell as much as 0.8 per cent to $61.50 a barrel in New York. Oil has gained 3.1 per cent this week as the dollar index has lost 1 per cent.

In India, gold prices soared past Rs 15,000 per 10 gm following increased buying by traders for festival season.

This defied the international trend of the prices stagnated at around $930. India is the biggest consumer of the yellow metal. Investment in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange-traded fund backed by bullion, rose 0.3 metric tonne to 1,094.85 tons. That’s the first increase since the fund reached a record 1,134.03 tonne almost seven weeks ago. Gold held in ETF Securities Ltd.’s exchange-traded commodities fell 0.5 per cent to 7.533 million ounces.

Analysts said the metal may drop back to at least $927 to $930 an ounce.

Next week, the main event that is going to decide the gold prices will be Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s testimony to the Senate about how and when he’ll move to reduce the liquidity pumped into the financial system since the crisis began two years ago in August. A major factor that will cite support for gold prices at $920, and pegging resistance at $944.

On Friday, gold price slipped into the New York opening, dropping $2 from a London AM Fix of $934.50 an ounce, as global stock markets ticked higher for the fourth session this week. Crude oil held onto Thursday’s bounce above $62 per barrel. US government debt prices rose, pushing the yield on 10-year Treasuries down to 3.45 per cent.

A new Scotia Capital note says that gold is set to jump in the coming months. While gold and silver prices have not seen their annual summer pullback this year, they have remained `stagnant’ and are likely to stay flat until August, argue other analysts.

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