SYDNEY: Gold rose more than 1% on Monday on the back of buoyant Asian stocks and a weaker US dollar versus the euro, and platinum climbed as
investors turned buyers in the belief concerns over waning demand were overdone.
Asian stocks jumped 4% on Monday on renewed hopes for a bailout of the US automaker industry. But the White House said on Sunday it did not expect any announcement on the rescue plan before President George W. Bush returned to the United States from Iraq.
Spot gold was at $830.70 an ounce at 0358 GMT, against a late New York's notional close of $820.45 on Friday. Spot platinum recovered more than $20 an ounce, recouping losses incurred on Friday after the US Congress scrapped a bill to save the auto industry.
Platinum is used as an autocatalyst to clean auto exhaust fumes. "We're seeing very major cut backs in platinum production now to address lower demand," Patterson Securities analyst Andrew Harrington said. Platinum was showing a modest premium to gold again on Monday after being briefly in discount late last week for the first time since December 1996, according to Reuters data. "Some investors may be saying, wait a minute platinum's almost at parity with gold and see this as a time to buy," Harrington said.
COMEX gold futures were higher in Asia after falling more than $6 per ounce on Friday. The most active February contract was trading up 1.26% at $830.80 an ounce in after-hours trading on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Arbitrage buyers were also active in gold as worsening US economic data, a rapidly growing fiscal deficit and the likelihood the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again this week all combined to push the dollar to a two-month low against the euro.
"The tide seems to have turned around in recent sessions, with bad U.S. economic news now rightfully hurting the US dollar rather than helping it stronger," said Nizam Idris, currency strategist with UBS in Singapore. Gold was also supported after oil rose to $47 a barrel on Monday on signs that OPEC members are set to make another deep cut in supply when it meets on Wednesday.
The benchmark October gold contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange rose 65 yen yen per gram to 2,426 yen. Spot platinum rose to $834 an ounce, up sharply from $805.50 in New York. Palladium, another metal used as an autocatalyst, rose to $176 an ounce from $168. Silver rose to $10.39 an ounce from $10.23.
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