By Millie Munshi Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Gold rose, heading for its first weekly gain in a month, as a declining dollar boosted demand from investors seeking an alternative. Platinum and palladium also gained, while silver declined. The dollar lost as much as 1.1 percent against the euro today, heading for a second weekly decline, as the U.S. unemployment rate climbed to the highest level since 1994, indicating the financial crisis is taking its toll. Gold generally moves in the opposite direction of the U.S. currency. ``Gold came up this morning on the euro strength,'' said Frank McGhee, the head metals dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services in Chicago. Gold will be ``bullish'' in the long-term as inflation accelerates, he said. Gold futures for December delivery rose $3.70, or 0.5 percent, to $735.90 an ounce at 11:35 a.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. A close at that price would leave gold up 2.4 percent for the week, the first gain since the five days ended Oct. 10. The dollar dropped 0.5 percent to trade at $1.278 per euro. A close at that price would leave the euro up 0.4 percent this week, after gaining 0.8 percent last week. ``Gold will go up, because it is the only money you can trust,'' Michael Martin, a trader at R.F. Lafferty Inc. in New York, said in an e-mailed note today. Gold reached a record $1,033.90 an ounce in March as the euro headed for an all-time high in July. Silver futures for December delivery fell 3.5 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $10.02 an ounce on the Comex. A close at that price would leave the metal up 3 percent this week. Silver Outlook Silver will outperform gold as a hedge against inflation, investor Jim Rogers said this week. Before today, silver was down 33 percent this year, compared with a 13 percent drop for gold. ``It's been beaten down horribly,'' Rogers, chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings, said on Nov. 3. ``If you put a gun to my head and said you have to buy one, I would buy silver rather than gold.'' Silver futures may ``spike higher'' to $22 an ounce in the next six months, Carlos Sanchez, associate director of research at CPM Group, said in an interview in China's southern Haikou city. Anglo Platinum Ltd., the world's biggest producer of the metal, said it is still supplying customers from its Polokwane smelter in South Africa after an accident on Nov. 5. The company said the incident at the plant, 200 miles (322 kilometers) north of Johannesburg, may cut output by as much as 200,000 ounces this year. Platinum futures for January delivery rose $12.80, or 1.5 percent, to $851.10 an ounce on the Nymex. December palladium was up $2.40, or 1.1 percent, to $225 an ounce in New York. To contact the reporter on this story: Millie Munshi in New York at mmunshi@bloomberg.net.

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