Gold was down slightly through Hong Kong and the first half of the London session on Monday, fell off another $10 in the first hour of New York trading, bottoming at $915, but inched slowly higher for the rest of the day, finishing at $923.10/oz., down $6.30. Overnight, gold is slightly lower.

Platinum started at $1,055, traded as much as $13 higher and as much as $17 lower, but wound up right where it began, at $1,055/oz., unchanged. Overnight, platinum has edged lower.

Silver was at break-even at the end of Hong Kong trading, but declined from there to mid-morning in New York, before bouncing off the $12.80 level and rallying modestly through the rest of the day, closing at $12.89/oz., down 29 cents. Overnight, silver has been flat.

The precious metals spun their wheels during a second straight day of consolidation, with a bias to the downside.

There perhaps should have been more upward pressure on the gold price, as the dollar was pushed below $1.30 against the euro, and crude edged higher. But markets are always full of shoulda beens, and the fact is that it didn’t happen.

Analysts said that global equities rising in the wake of the G20 meeting served to lessen gold’s appeal. Kitco’s Jon Nadler noted that ‘investors cautiously diverted some funds into equities following determined statements from various G20 summit attendees,’ including a promise to restore bank lending.

Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, speaking on 60 Minutes, went a bit warm and fuzzy, reiterating his prediction that the U.S. recession will come to an end ‘probably this year.’ Of course, he qualified that by saying that assumes multilateral efforts to stabilize the financial system succeed.

Over on the equity side, JP Morgan Chase analysts said that gold bulls should be placing bets on the mining companies.

The miners have underperformed spot gold for about a year, as rising costs of production, combined with the collapse of global stock markets, have pushed the mining indexes to near a record low relative to the gold price. But now that has turned, and margins have gotten a whole lot healthier.”

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