By Laura Mandaro and Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures edged between minor gains and losses in U.S. trading Thursday, finding more support in Greek discord while a rising U.S. dollar limited gains.
Gold for August delivery GC1Q +0.22% recently traded flat at $1,526.20 an ounce. It had hit a high of $1,534 an ounce, building on small gains made in the previous session.On Thursday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou was expected to try to form a new government in a bid to push through austerity measures, a day after Athens shuddered under a general strike and violent confrontations between police and protesters. But several parliamentary resignations through those aims into doubt.
European stock markets tumbled, and the dollar rose against the euro, capping some of gold’s rise. Gold’s gains to nominal record highs in the past year have come as investors sought hard assets as a hedge against what many see as a long-term decline in currencies, particularly the U.S. dollar, the world’s reserve currency. Read more on currencies and read more on Europe Markets.
“The debt crisis in Greece has widened into a political crisis and Greek insolvency is becoming increasingly likely,” wrote analysts at Commerzbank.
“The current very high level of uncertainty is still causing risk aversion of market players to rise and gold is profiting accordingly,” they added.
Laura Mandaro is a MarketWatch editor, based in San Francisco.
Sarah Turner is MarketWatch's bureau chief in Sydney.
