COMEX gold steadied Tuesday after its pullback from last week's highs, helped by a weaker dollar, another record oil price, and concern that these could foreshadow inflation.
At 9:20 am EDT (1320 GMT), December gold was up $1.70 at $417.30 an ounce, winning back some of Monday's $5.60 decline. The range was $414.50 to $418, with traders keeping Friday's 5-1/2 month high at $421.90 in sight.
Spot was quoted at $415.35/6.10, up from $413.80/4.55 at the close. London's early fix was $414.25.
"It's a little bit of buying off the crude and we're making new highs on the euro. It held $413.30 yesterday and it's trying to inch back up here, but there's no volume," a floor broker said, mentioning a technical level arising from several recent daily lows and highs.
At the NYMEX energy pits, oil came within 10 cents of $51 a barrel Tuesday morning on the ACCESS electronic trading system. Gold has been following crude. Investors see it as a store of value if soaring energy costs spread in the economy, and undermine the dollar's purchasing power.
December silver was up 8.0 cents at $6.845 an ounce, trading from $6.72 to $6.85. On Friday it touched $7.00 for the first time since August 20, but fell sharply on Monday.
Spot silver fetched $6.78/81, up from $6.72/75 late Monday. The fix was $6.735.
NYMEX January platinum was up $6 at $835 an ounce, finding its footing after a $31 fall Monday. Spot was at $832.00/836.00.
December palladium was up $2.60 at $219.70 an ounce. Spot palladium last traded at $214.00/218.00.