Gold futures rose early on Wednesday as investors took advantage of Tuesday's dip to place more bets that the precious metal was not finished setting new highs.
"A lot of funds that are long are still looking higher in here," a floor broker said, adding that hedge funds and other big traders looked ready to buy on "any kind of pullback."
At 9:18 am EDT (1318 GMT), December gold at the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange was up 90 cents at $467.10 an ounce, trading from $464.70 to $469. That earned back some of a $3.30 loss the previous session.
Benchmark COMEX gold reached an 18-year high six days ago at $479 per ounce. Traders expect it will remain in demand as an inflation hedge so long as oil and gasoline prices remain near record highs and there are doubts about how the US economy will weather the damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The market has its sights set on the psychological level of $500 an ounce, and 8,432 lots of open interest in the December 500 call exceeds other out-of-the-money strikes.
Spot gold was quoted at $464.55/5.25, up from $462.10/2.80 late Tuesday in New York. Wednesday's early fix in London was $462.
COMEX December silver was up 3.2 cents at $7.36 an ounce, having dealt at $7.375 and $7.295.
Spot silver was quoted at $7.30/33, up from $7.25/28. It fixed Tuesday at $7.27.
October platinum was $1 higher at $919 an ounce. Spot platinum fetched $914/917. December palladium was 75 cents higher at $200.50 an ounce. Spot palladium was at $194/197.
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