US gold surges two percent

Gold rallied 2 percent to a new high above $1,820 an ounce on Thursday after US data pointed to a stalled economy, while renewed concern about the health of European banks brought additional safe-haven buying. Spot gold was up 2.1 percent at $1,825.60 an ounce by 3:00 pm EDT (1900 GMT), having hit a record $1,828.50. It is poised to log a 10 percent gain over the last two weeks, its best two-week performance since mid-February 2009.
US gold futures for December delivery settled up $28.20 at $1,822 an ounce. Trading volume topped 240,000 lots, the highest this week but below last week's pace. Silver rose 1.2 percent to $40.65 an ounce. Platinum was down 0.1 percent at $1,833.00, while palladium dropped 2.5 percent to $751.28 an ounce.