By Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Gold futures extended gains in electronic trading Thursday, putting the metal on track for a five-session winning streak, helped by expectations of fresh monetary policy stimulus.
Gold for August delivery GCQ2 +0.21% added $5.00, or 0.3%, to $1,624.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Stock Exchange during Asian trading hours.
Growing speculation of further monetary stimulus including from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank has spurred interest in gold in recent days.
The metal is seen as a safe store of value and a hedge against a devaluation of the dollar, should the Fed implement more quantitative easing measures.
A softer dollar was also encouraging gold buyers in Asian trading, with the ICE dollar index DXY -0.06% , which measures the greenback’s performance against a basket of six major currencies falling to 82.090, from 82.126 in North American trading late Wednesday.
A weaker greenback makes dollar-priced commodities cheaper to holders of other currencies.
The broader metals complex followed gold higher on Thursday, with platinum the leading advancer.
July platinum PLN2 +1.17% gained $14.40, or 1%, to $1,481.20 an ounce, while September palladium put on 95 cents, or 0.2%, to $624.25 an ounce.
July copper HGN2 +0.27% added 0.1%, to $3.34 a pound. Silver for July delivery SIN2 +0.17% edged up 1 cents to $28.95 an ounce.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
