US gold moves higher

Gold edged higher on Tuesday, rising past $1,500 an ounce and snapping three sessions of declines, as hopes that Greece would pass unpopular austerity measures boosted the euro and fuelled investor risk appetite for commodities. Spot gold was up 0.2 percent at $1,499.40 an ounce by 3:09 pm EDT (1909 GMT).
US gold futures for August delivery settled up $3.80 an ounce at $1,500.20, after trading between $1,495.50 and $1,507. Volume was less than 100,000 lots, about 55 percent below the 30-day average. Gold volume has been thin lately as investors have focused on equities markets. Among other precious metals, silver was up 0.7 percent at $33.76 an ounce, while platinum rose 1.2 percent to $1,691.25 an ounce and palladium was up 1.5 percent at $735.72.