Gold futures rose Tuesday for the first session in three, climbing above $920 an ounce as the slide in the U.S. dollar increased gold's appeal as an investment alternative. Gold for April delivery rose $5.30, or 0.6%, to $920.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. June gold, with a larger number of outstanding total contracts, gained $5.60, or 0.6%, to $923.30 an ounce. In currencies trading, the dollar was modestly lower versus most major currencies other than the Japanese yen, pressed by light position-squaring and a bounce in equity markets. A weaker greenback tends to push up dollar-denominated gold prices, though this pattern hasn't always held true in gold's recent trading. "Gold is supported by weakness in the dollar today and expected dollar weakness in the coming months as the Federal Reserve's balance sheet deteriorates further and U.S. budget deficits and the national debt rise very significantly," said Mark O'Byrne, executive director at Gold and Silver Investments. Gold's safe haven properties were seen yesterday as stocks around the world and crude-oil futures slumped, while gold ended only slightly lower, O'Byren said. "This has been the pattern in recent months and years when gold can be somewhat correlated to equity markets in the very short term -- often falls but falls by less than stock markets -- but is inversely correlated over the medium to long term," he added. U.S. stocks tumbled Monday, with the S&P 500 index down more than 3%, while crude oil futures lost nearly 8%, the biggest one-day decline in one month. Futures indexes were indicating a higher opening on Wall Street Tuesday, following gains in Asian and European stocks. Crude oil, meanwhile, also moved higher. In other metals trading Tuesday, silver for May delivery rose 1.2% to $13.19 an ounce. April platinum added 0.9% to $1,124 an ounce, and June palladium dropped 0.4% to $216.50 an ounce. May copper jumped 4.2% to $1.84 a pound.

Source