Gold rose to a three-week high on Tuesday as European and US shares fell and the dollar hit its lowest in over a month after last week's soft US growth data dented expectations for a near-term interest rate hike.
Platinum group metals continued to shine, with platinum reaching its highest since April 2015 and palladium hitting a 14-month peak.
Spot gold was up 0.9 percent at $1,365.09 an ounce by 2:44 pm EDT (1844 GMT), after rising to $1,367.33, the highest since July 11. US gold futures for December delivery settled up 1 percent at $1,372.60. "People are concerned about interest rates in the US not being hiked, about equities overheating - those concerns are getting stronger every day," ING analyst Hamza Khan said. "There's a lot of upward momentum here."
Gold is highly sensitive to US interest rates, which lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion. Holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Shares saw its biggest one-day inflow since late June, on Monday, while inflows of the six silver ETFs followed by Reuters rose to a record high.
Platinum was up 0.9 percent at $1,167.40 an ounce, after touching a more than 15-month high of $1,177.40 earlier in the day. Whether or not South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers will go on strike at power utility Eskom on August 8, and potentially affect platinum supplies, is questionable, said Miguel Perez-Santalla, vice president of Heraeus Metal Management in New York. "Many of the mining companies had installed significant power back-up systems to avoid the disruptions that had been suffered in the past," he said. Palladium was up 0.5 percent at $716.35, after hitting a 13-month high of $722.90 earlier in the session. Silver was up 1.1 percent at $20.63.
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