NEW YORK, Aug 26 (Reuters) - COMEX gold and silver were supported in quiet early trade Monday, with no liquidity from London because of a UK summer bank holiday and trader loathe to commit before the coming U.S. Labor Day holiday weekend.
"We're pretty quiet here. You've got a holiday in London," said a COMEX silver broker.
December gold at 0910 EDT was up 50 cents at $308.80 an ounce, wandering between $309 and $307.70. Spot gold fetched $307.40/90, up from Friday's close at $306.75/7.25.
There was no fix by the London Bullion Market Association on Monday, with city banks closed.
The CFTC commitments of traders report late Friday showed that noncommercials had turned slightly net long again by 4,708 contracts as of Tuesday, a week after liquidating to a short of 476 contracts, the first since the start of the 2002 bull run that took prices to 2-1/2 year highs over $330 in June.
"While constructive, we're not sure this is evidence of a definite trading plan to match the 46,914 contract peak accumulation from back on May 21," IFR/Pegasus analyst Timothy Evans wrote in a commentary late Friday. "Gold may have seen its trending move for the year, and now just be subject to short-term chop."
September silver was up 1.7 cents at $4.44 an ounce. It hovered above Friday's six-month low at $4.38, trading $4.45-$4.42. Spot silver was quoted $4.43/45, up from $4.41/43 late Friday.
The net speculative long in silver fell to 16,444 lots from 22,737 lots last week, according to the CFTC figures.
Evans wrote that this was the smallest net long in silver since Dec 18, 2001, noting that silver rarely dips to the short side.
First notice day for September silver is Friday, by which time most longs who don't want to risk receiving physical metal will have covered positions or rolled them into December, which becomes the active contract.
"Right now nothing's going on, only switches -- we're into rollover this week and last week," said the broker.
Leonard Kaplan, president of Prospector Asset Management, said in his report Monday that when silver prices where last this low in February, gold was $25 cheaper than it is now.
"The gold silver ratio is now near or at 70 to 1, historically extremely high. Such a ratio would scream that either silver is just stupid cheap at these prices or that gold will soon fall in value quickly," he wrote. "I greatly favor the first explanation."
NYMEX October platinum was $1.80 firmer at $548 an ounce. Spot platinum was at $546/554.
September palladium was up $6 at $328 an ounce. Spot last fetched $323.50/335.50.