New York gold, silver, platinum and palladium futures scored new long-term highs early Tuesday on buying sparked by record-high oil prices, dollar volatility and doubts about the US economy, dealers said.
"It's for all the usual reasons, such as energy, Iran, geopolitical instability, even (mining) strikes," said George Gero, vice president at RBC Capital Markets Global Futures.
By 11:04 am EDT, benchmark June delivery gold on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division was up $4.20 at $623 per ounce, the steepest for futures since December 1980.
Prices took off after US crude surged to a record $70.88 a barrel earlier as Iran defied world pressure to stop its nuclear program, raising fears of a cut in supplies.
Nigerian oil production constraints due to recent rebel attacks also fed the buying in oil. Gold has rallied 17 percent in the year-to-date and 35 percent since the start of last year.
"The precious metals are being driven ever higher by speculative and investment buying," said John Reade, analyst with UBS.
The net fund long position in COMEX gold futures fell to 124,332 contracts as of April 1, from 132,208 lots on April 4, according to the latest weekly Commitments of Traders report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Spot gold rose to $618.40/619.20 an ounce after hitting a new 25-year high at $618.25 in Asia, up from $613.20/4.00 late Monday. The afternoon London fix by bullion dealers on Tuesday hit $614.75.
COMEX May silver gained 20.5 cents to $13.57 an ounce, moving between $13.33 to $13.68. Silver last traded up at these levels in May 1983.
Traders said prices are soaring on hopes of an imminent launch of the first silver exchange-traded fund and the metal has the potential to reach $15 an ounce.
The ETF from Barclays Global Investors, which is designed to track the silver price, has not yet received final approval from US regulators.
Spot silver fetched $13.63/13.66 an ounce, a 23-year high, from $13.41/13.44 previously. Tuesday's fix jumped 7.8 percent to $13.6350.
NYMEX July platinum set a new record high at $1,118 an ounce and was last at $1,117 - up $4.90. Spot platinum reached a record at $1,104 and last was worth $1,104/1,108 an ounce.
June palladium rose $2.05 an ounce to $364.50 an ounce after reaching $366 - a peak since September 2002. Spot palladium traded at $360/364 an ounce.
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