Gold holds near highs in London

Gold traded near its highest level in 25 years on Monday as tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions lifted oil prices, while sharp gains in platinum were capped by profit taking, dealers said.
Gold, often seen as a safe-haven metal, hovered in a narrow range but was expected to extend gains this week on inflation fears and political instability.
"It might even be a calm before the storm. I think we are going to see some further tests higher this week," said James Moore, analyst at TheBullionDesk.com.
"The market is going to remain in a bullish trend and we will continue on towards the $600 (an ounce) level, probably over the course of the year," he said.
Spot gold rose to as high as $572.60 an ounce, not far from Thursday's 25-year high of $574.60, before easing to $571.00/571.90 by 1535 GMT. That was higher than $567.20/568.10 late in New York on Friday.
Precious metals have rallied as investors diversify their assets, partly over Iran's nuclear intentions, concerns about the outlook for the dollar and firm energy prices.
Iran on Sunday ended snap UN checks of its nuclear sites and said it was resuming uranium enrichment, a day after being reported to the UN Security Council over suspicions it is building nuclear weapons.
The top UN body will take no action until a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency is delivered in March.
"Geopolitical tension, with Iran restarting uranium enrichment ... coupled with high oil prices stocking inflationary fears are supportive for gold's perception (as) a safe-haven asset," Barclays Capital said in a report.
Leading base metals were buoyant as Asian traders returned after a week-long holiday for Chinese New Year, maintaining the investment-led commodity market boom and keeping prices near record highs.
Analysts said the market sentiment was upbeat as gold prices have risen despite a drop in long speculative positions.
The latest weekly report by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a US regulator, showed a drop of 11.2 tonnes in speculative long position at New York's COMEX to 433.10 tonnes.
"If the market can absorb such a weight of selling, then just imagine what will happen if the funds begin to reinstate long positions," said Alan Williamson, head of commodity research at HSBC Bank.
High gold prices hit physical demand and buyers kept on waiting for a some correction to resume buying.
"We need to find the level at which underlying physical demand will support gold. Until then, I wouldn't be comfortable with gold up here, because it's all investment and speculative money at the moment," said John Reade, precious metals analyst at UBS Investment Bank.
The dollar gained ground against most major currencies, holding near a one-month high versus the euro, after an upbeat US jobs report reinforced expectations for higher US interest rates. Oil also surged on Monday.
Platinum rose as much as $1,081 before slipping to $1,068/1,073 an ounce, against $1,074/1,077 late in New York. It hit a record high of $1,083 on Friday, mainly driven by strong industrial demand and fund buying in Japan.
Palladium fell to $304/309 an ounce from $314/317. Silver rose to $9.79/9.82 an ounce from New York's $9.72/9.75, but was below last week's 22-year high of $9.92.