Silver advanced to a 30-year high and gold gained as the dollar traded near a nine-month low against the euro after the Federal Reserve said it will purchase more government debt.
Immediate-delivery silver increased as much as 1.3 percent to $25.1787 an ounce, the costliest since 1980, and traded at $24.9762 at 3:32 p.m. Seoul time, taking its gain this year to 48 percent as demand for a haven against currency turmoil drove investor buying. Gold added as much as 0.7 percent to $1,357.45 an ounce and is up 23 percent this year.
The Fed yesterday announced plans to expand asset purchases by $600 billion to shore up the economy and pledged to keep the benchmark interest rate close to zero for an ?extended period.? Spot gold reached a record $1,387.35 on Oct. 14 amid speculation that further so-called quantitative easing by the Fed would debase the U.S. currency.
?While you continue to have U.S. dollar weakness you are going to continue to see commodities bid up that are priced in U.S. dollars,? Ben Westmore, a minerals and energy economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. in Melbourne.
The dollar traded at $1.4124 per euro from $1.4139 in New York yesterday, when it touched $1.4179, the lowest since January. Bullion for December delivery in New York rose 1.2 percent to $1,354.10 an ounce.
Gold prices in the medium term would be underpinned by central bank buying and improving jewelry demand, Westmore said.
Currency Fluctuations
?When you extract currency fluctuations, we see a raft of positive fundamental reasons why gold prices should be around these levels and I expect them to remain at least in this sort of region for some time,? he said.
Gold assets in exchange-traded products fell for a 14th day yesterday. Holdings decreased 0.9 metric ton to 2,085.60 tons as of Nov. 3 from the previous day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from 10 providers. Holdings reached a record 2,104.65 tons on Oct. 14.
Gold Fields Ltd., Africa?s second-largest producer of the precious metal, today said production for the three months through September rose to 908,000 ounces.
Spot palladium gained 1.1 percent to $653.63 an ounce and platinum for immediate delivery rose 0.5 percent to $1,713.75 an ounce. Fifty-three of 56 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News last week predicted the Fed would announce asset purchases, with 29 forecasting a pledge to buy $500 billion or more.
To contact the reporter on this story: Wendy Pugh at wpugh@bloomberg.net; Sungwoo Park in Seoul at spark47@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.
No comments:
Post a Comment