By Myra P. Saefong and Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures climbed Wednesday, poised to extend their winning streak to a seventh-straight session after some relatively positive developments out of debt-stricken Greece failed to reignite investors’ appetite for risk.
Gold for August delivery GC1Q +0.75% rose $8, or 0.5%, to $1,554.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
July silver SI1Q +0.80% also climbed 20 cents, or 0.5%, to $36.57 an ounce.
Late Tuesday, the Greek government won a key confidence vote, paving the way for the country to approve additional austerity measures and receive further financial aid. Read more about Greece.
The outcome wiped away fears of an imminent default by the debt-plagued nation, and helped buoy Asian equity markets Wednesday. Read more on Asian stocks.
Still, “investors feared that Greece might find it difficult to implement the austerity drive despite winning the confidence vote,” analysts at ICICI Bank said in a research note.
Market participants are also awaiting the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting committee meeting and press-conference from Chairman Ben Bernanke, slated for later Wednesday.
“The main thing is how long will the Fed continue with an easy monetary stance, and whether any quantitative easing will be announced. If the injection of liquidity into the system is not announced, we might see a correction to $1,530 or maybe $1,510, then another move higher,” said Chintan Karnani, chief analyst at Insignia Consultants in New Delhi.
For now, the broader metals complex traded mostly higher.
Platinum for July delivery PL1N +0.49% gained $5.60, or 0.3%, to $1,752.80 an ounce, while September palladium PA1U +0.93% added $5.95 to $773.20.
July copper HG1N -0.06% , however, was flat at $4.09 a pound.
The dollar index DXY +0.03% which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of six other major currencies, rose to 74.634, from 74.562 late Tuesday. Read more about currencies.
Demand for gold and other dollar-priced commodities tends to decline as the dollar strengthens but the greenback was also trading below its earlier high of 74.866.
Myra Saefong is a MarketWatch reporter based in San Francisco.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
