Precious metals rocketed to fresh multiyear peaks on Thursday morning in New York, powered by fund buying across a range of commodities that was driven by positive market outlooks and thoughts of even higher prices.
Platinum scaled an all-time peak above $1,100 an ounce, while gold and silver futures shot to 25- and 22-year highs, respectively. Palladium scored its highest level in nearly four years.
"It seems that general commodity highs are adding purchasing power to momentum players' funds, so they are increasing positions in the metals," said George Gero, vice president at RBC Capital Markets Global Futures.
A scorching silver rally on expectations that an exchange traded fund backed by the metal will lift demand from consumers and investors has fuelled gains in other metals as well.
Gold for June delivery at the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division was up $10.40 or 1.8 percent at $589 an ounce by 10:19 am EST (1519 GMT), just off a new high of $592, which was the priciest for futures since January 1981.
Spot gold shot to $582.90/583.60 an ounce by midmorning, from the last New York close of $573.10/574.00. London bullion dealers fixed the afternoon spot reference rate at $584.
COMEX May silver spiked to $11.52 which marked a level not seen since September 1983 before backtracking to $11.46 for a gain of 34.5 cents or 3.1 percent. Silver has risen 10.5 percent since March 21 when the US Securities and Exchange Commission cleared the way for final approval of an ETF proposed last year by Barclays Global Investors.
Spot silver hit $11.45/11.48 an ounce, from $11.10/11.13 previously. Thursday's London fix was at $11.45.
On the board at NYMEX, benchmark July platinum got as high as $1,104.80 before edging back to $1,098 for a gain of $10.10, or 0.93 percent. Spot platinum rose about $17 to $1,088/1,092.
NYMEX June palladium reached its loftiest level since September 2002 at $355.80 before trading to $352.50 - still up $15.10 or 4.5 percent. Spot palladium rose around $13 to $346/350.
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