MW: Gold at 5-week high on weaker dollar, safety buying
By Moming Zhou, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Gold futures rose for a fourth session in New York Monday, surging to their highest in more than five weeks as safe-haven buying and the dollar's decline continued.
Gold's gains followed rallies in crude oil and other metals commodities. Silver jumped past $10 an ounce for the first time in two weeks.
Gold for December delivery rose $23.20, or 2.9%, to $815 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose to $824 earlier, the highest intraday level since Oct. 16. The metal has gained nearly $90, or 12%, since Nov. 18.
Gold rallied more than $40 Friday, ending the week up 6.6%, the biggest percentage gain since the week ended Sept. 19.
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"A difficult external environment made for a somewhat softer dollar and enabled safe-haven plays" in precious metals, said Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco Bullion Dealers.
In currency trading, the dollar fell against the euro and the British pound. The dollar index , which tracks the value of the greenback against its major rivals, lost 0.7%. A falling dollar increases gold's investment appeal.
Despite recent rallies, gold futures are still about 19% below their record above $1,000, hit in March. As safe-haven investment demand returns, some analysts were seeing gold prices rise further.
In gold spot trading, the London gold-fixing price -- used as a benchmark for gold for immediate delivery -- stood at $816.75 an ounce Monday morning, up $42.25 from Friday afternoon.
Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the largest gold exchange-traded fund, stood at 755.06 tons on Friday, up 3.06 from a day ago, according to the latest data from the fund.
December palladium rallied 9.6% to $196 an ounce, and January platinum added 3.8% to $857 an ounce.
December copper rose 7% to $1.6915 a pound.
