US gold futures rose to their highest level in more than two months early Friday, following strong gains in the previous sessions, fuelled by renewed fund buying as the dollar weakened and oil remained firm.
At 10:12 am EDT (1412 GMT), most-active gold for August delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange was up $4.00 at $682.10 an ounce, dealing between $675.80 and $683.50 - which marked its loftiest level since May 10.
Joseph Guzzardi at Sabin Commodities said from the COMEX floor that the falling dollar and stronger energy prices had kept the precious metals market up most of this week. "Some fund's buying coming back in here," he said. Guzzardi said that gold futures might be a little overdone, but he expected prices could go slightly higher in the near term.
August gold has rallied more than $30, or 5 percent, since it closed at $650.60 on July 5. Jon Nadler, analyst at Kitco Bullion Dealers, said in a client note that one of the challenges facing bullion's recent rally was not so much the lack of jewellery and investment demand, but rather more official-sector bullion sales which could come in the next two months.
Heavier-than-usual central-bank sales in Europe have taken a toll on investor sentiment earlier this year and also kept gold from breaching above the psychological $700 level. Spot gold was quoted at $682.85/683.45 an ounce, higher than $673.90/674.50 late Thursday. The London morning gold fix was $676.00. In mining news, the world's biggest platinum producer, Angloplat, will hold further wage talks with South Africa's biggest mining union next week after it did not file a dispute as expected, the firm said on Friday.
The development could lead to a wage deal and avert a possible strike in South Africa, the world's biggest source of platinum group metals. Meanwhile, Stillwater Mining said it might miss its production goal due to weaker production and the recent labour stoppage at a mine and some processing facilities. Stillwater is the only US producer of palladium and platinum and is the largest producer of platinum metals outside of Russia and South Africa. The company had previously given a 2007 mine-production outlook of 615,000 to 645,000 platinum-group metal ounces. Stillwater said it will give a new production forecast at a later time.
NYMEX October platinum was up $4.50 at $1,343.00 an ounce. Spot platinum fetched $1,332/1,336 an ounce. September palladium inched up 30 cents at $374.25 an ounce. Spot palladium was quoted at $370/374 an ounce.
COMEX September silver was up 7.5 cents at $13.450 an ounce, trading between $13.300 and $13.500. Spot silver was quoted at $13.37/13.41 an ounce, compared with $13.24/13.28 late Thursday. London silver was fixed at $13.250.