By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures rose Monday, buoyed by resurfacing euro-zone debt concerns, worries about the Middle East and North Africa, and fresh doubts about the global recovery in light of destruction in Japan.
Gold for April delivery (GCJ11 1,424, +1.70, +0.12%) added $8.40, or 0.6%, to $1,430.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
“Given the European sovereign debt crisis, geopolitical instability in oil producing nations, and continuing concerns about the global economy, the devastating megaquake and tsunami could not have come at a worse time both for the indebted Japanese economy and the global economy,” analysts at GoldCore said in a note to clients Monday.
The Japanese started their search-and-rescue operations over the weekend only to find out there was nothing much left to rescue after Friday’s devastating quake and tsunami.
Fears that the nuclear reactors, damaged by the quake, are at risk of a meltdown added to the country’s woes. Read about Japanese shares.
Japan’s quake may have pushed out Libya from the headlines, but fighting in the North African country continued with forces loyal to the government on the offensive around Tripoli.
In Europe, euro zone leaders reached an agreement Saturday to boost their lending capacity to a full 500 billion euros ($694.9 billion) from slightly more than €300 billion.
They also agreed to ensure that the permanent bailout mechanism to be put in place in 2013 will also offer half a trillion euros in capacity.
Bailout funds could be used to buy bonds from governments directly, but they rejected calls to purchase bonds on the secondary market from investors. Read more about euro pact
“Even so, there are still points of disagreement among state and government heads and the debt crisis is by no means over. This issue is set to accompany markets for quite a while yet and support gold prices accordingly,” analysts at Commerzbank said in a note to clients Monday.
Meanwhile, silver tracked gold higher but other metals more closely linked to industrial activities traded lower.
Silver for May delivery (SIK11 3,583, -10.50, -0.29%) rose 23 cents, or 0.6%, to $36.15 an ounce. May copper (HGK11 419.45, -1.30, -0.31%) was off a penny, or 0.4%, to $4.19 a pound.
