gold bars

Published in Financial Post Bob Van Voris, Bloomberg News | March 5, 2014 | Last Updated: Mar 5 8:13 AM ET

Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG, the Bank of Nova Scotia and two other banks were accused in a lawsuit of manipulating the London gold fix, a benchmark used throughout the $20 trillion market for the metal.

Kevin Maher, a New York resident who says he bought and sold gold and gold futures and options, sued Tuesday in Manhattan federal court claiming the five banks overseeing the century-old benchmark colluded to manipulate it.

Wall Street Journal, Money Beat

China’s buying of gold jewelry, coins and bars is now the biggest driver of prices, not investment demand from the West, according to HSBCHSBA.LN +1.46% Global Research.

“We would argue that physical demand trends in the emerging world will largely define gold’s price movements this year,” HSBC analysts James Steel and Howard Wen said in a research note.

Spot gold retreated on concerns the lingering strike in India will cut into the buying. The yellow metal dealt to an intra-day low of $1654.

“Enthusiasm for precious metals waned as the boost from (Federal Reserve Chairman) Bernanke’s dovish comments the previous day began to fade. Evaporating physical demand also pushed gold lower, dragging down the rest of the complex” Standard Bank said in their daily note.