By Pham-Duy Nguyen Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Gold prices rose as the slumping dollar boosted the appeal of the precious metal as an alternative investment. Silver also gained. The dollar fell as much as 1.4 percent today against a weighted basket of six major currencies. Last week, the greenback tumbled 4 percent, the most since September 1985, while gold jumped 9.1 percent. The metal reached a record in March as interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve sent the dollar to an all-time low against the euro. “One of the things gold has going for it is that it’s viewed as an international currency,” said Frank Lesh, a trader at FuturePath Trading LLC in Chicago. “We’re expecting the Fed to take the rate down from 1 percent to 0.5 percent. Gold is reacting to the downturn in the dollar.” Gold futures for February delivery rose $9.40, or 1.2 percent, to $829.90 an ounce at 9:39 a.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Last week’s gain was the biggest since mid-September. Silver futures for March delivery climbed 11.5 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $10.345 an ounce. To contact the reporter on this story: Pham-Duy Nguyen in Seattle at pnguyen@bloomberg.net.

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