BLBG:Gold Advances as ETP Holdings Climb to Record, Euro Gains Before Summit
Gold gained for a second day after exchange-traded product holdings climbed to a record and speculation that European leaders are making progress in containing the debt crisis boosted the euro and equities. Palladium rallied to the highest level in more than two months.
Immediate-delivery gold advanced 0.2 percent to $1,731.28 an ounce at 3:23 p.m. in Singapore. Metal held in ETPs climbed to 2,358.206 metric tons yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. February-delivery bullion rose 0.2 percent to $1,734.80 on the Comex in New York.
European officials are negotiating a bigger rescue plan to present at a summit in Brussels that begins tomorrow. Policy makers may run two bailout funds simultaneously, the Financial Times said yesterday, bolstering the euro against the dollar.
“Gold and silver drifted higher as the U.S. dollar (DXY) eased,” Lachlan Shaw, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in an e-mail today. Trading is “thin” as investors wait for the summit, he said.
The euro was at $1.3443, rebounding from yesterday’s low of $1.3334. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of equities increased as much as 1.4 percent.
Spot palladium extended yesterday’s 5.9 percent gain, the most since December 2009, after U.S. light-vehicle sales grew last month, boosting speculation demand will increase for the metal used in autocatalysts. It climbed as much as 1.5 percent to $680 an ounce today, the highest price since Sept. 22.
Cash silver was little changed at $32.72 an ounce, while platinum advanced 0.7 percent to $1,534.50 an ounce.
To contact the reporter on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net
