By Claudia Assis and William L. Watts, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures added to gains Thursday after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi detailed a plan to buy bonds from struggling euro-zone countries.
Gold futures for December delivery GCZ2 +0.96% rose $10.50, or 0.6%, to trade at $1,704.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Draghi provided details of the plan, which markets wanted to hear, and gold and other commodities prices rallied.
Fed may let ECB do heavy lifting
The Federal Reserve will be watching its European counterpart, hoping definitive ECB action will have measurable results, according to Steve Ayer, managing director at HighTower Advisors.
The ECB would launch an “outright monetary transaction,” program in the secondary market. The bank would decide when to start, continue or suspend bond buys.
Draghi said the program would enable the central bank “to address severe distortions in government bond markets which originate from, in particular, unfounded fears on the part of investors of the reversibility of the euro.”
Other metals tracked gold higher, with silver among the top gainers. The December contract SIZ2 +1.69% rose 53 cents, or 1.6%, to $32.86 an ounce.
Platinum for October delivery PLV2 +0.86% gained $12.80, or 0.8%, to $1,588.50 an ounce. Copper was the outlier, with the December contract HGZ2 +0.11% down less than a penny to $3.53 a pound.
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch.
William L. Watts is MarketWatch's European bureau chief, based in Frankfurt.
