By Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Gold futures rose in electronic trading Tuesday - but remained below $1,700 an ounce - as investors regained some appetite for metals amid a weaker dollar.
Gold for December delivery GC1Z +0.10% added $5.30, or 0.3% to $1,6784.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange during Asian trading hours.
The metal closed out Monday’s North American session at a four-week low, dropping 2.7%, as investors fled to cash on mounting worries about global debt and the uncertain economic outlook. Read more on Monday's metals session.
Credit Agricole senior metals analyst Robin Bhar said “further falls towards $1,650 an ounce could be on the cards especially amid selloffs in other markets [which] prompts liquidation or margin selling and a liquidity squeeze.”
Metal markets found support in a weaker dollar, as the dollar index DXY +0.11% , which compares the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell to 78.308, from 78.315 in North American trade late Monday.
The broader metals complex tracked gold higher, but fell short of recouping Monday’s losses.
Silver for December delivery SI1Z +0.43% added 36 cents, or 1.2%, to $31.48 an ounce.
“Silver....must hold at $30 an ounce to prevent further significant weakness from developing,”Credit Agricole’s Robin Bhar said.
December copper HG1Z +1.06% , the contract with the most volume, rose 4 cents, or 1.1%, to $3.34 a pound.
January platinum PL2F +0.60% put on $13.00, or 0.8%, to $1,556.80 an ounce, and palladium for December delivery / PA1Z +0.09% added $3.20, or 0.6%, to $589.00 an ounce.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
