MW: Gold moves higher as uncertainty about Greece remains
By Claudia Assis & Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures traded higher on Wednesday but light volume and question marks over Greece's financial rescue package left it open for fluctuations throughout the session.
Gold for June delivery gained $5.90, or 0.5%, to $1,168.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, its highest since December. Prices bounced between gains and losses in early Wednesday trade.
"The uncertainty out there still keeps a lot of people in the sidelines," said Frank Lesh, a broker and futures analyst with FuturePath Trading, Chicago
On Tuesday, the June contract rose $8.20 to end at $1,162.20 an ounce after the downgrade of credit ratings for both Greece and Portugal hammered the U.S. equities market and some dollar-denominated commodities including crude oil. But bullion gained as investors fled to assets perceived as relatively safe.
On Wednesday, the euro rebounded slightly versus the U.S. dollar, but remained not far off a one-year low amid fears Greece's debt crisis could spiral out of control, infecting other indebted euro-zone countries.
The euro (CUR_EURUSD 1.3144, -0.0020, -0.1519%) edged up to $1.318 from $1.3179 in North American trade late Tuesday, but off highs over $1.32 for the day.
The dollar index (DXY 82.31, +0.16, +0.19%) strengthened to 82.38, up about 0.1% from late in the prior session.
A rising dollar tends to weigh on prices for gold, which many investors view as a hedge against the depreciation of paper currencies.
Holdings on the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD 114.77, +0.14, +0.12%) on Tuesday hit a fresh record high of 1,146.825 metric tons (1,264 short tons), according to the fund, the world's biggest backed by gold.
