By Pham-Duy Nguyen Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Gold rose for the first time in five sessions after U.S. equities fell, boosting the appeal of the precious metal as a haven asset. Silver dropped. U.S. stocks extended declines after worse-than-estimated reports on retail sales and New York manufacturing heightened concern the economy is in a recession. Gold fell 2.3 percent in the previous two sessions as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 11 percent. ``The reality is that the equities rally this week was a band-aid rally, and now you're seeing some buying coming back to gold on the wall of worry,'' said Frank McGhee, head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago. ``The underlying problem in the credit markets is going to take a long time to work through.'' Gold futures for December delivery rose $12.50, or 1.5 percent, to $852 an ounce at 10:12 a.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The metal has dropped 18 percent since reaching a record of $1,033.90 on March 17. Silver futures for December delivery fell 65 cents, or 5.9 percent, to $10.41 an ounce. Before today, the price dropped 26 percent this year. To contact the reporter on this story: Pham-Duy Nguyen in Seattle at pnguyen@bloomberg.net.

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