Gold rose on Thursday after two days of sharp declines, as tumbling European and US equity markets on talk that Germany might enact a short-selling ban prompted investors to buy bullion as a safe haven. Early in the session, bullion dropped as much as 3 percent or more than $200 from Tuesday's record highs, as funds liquidated positions due to CME Group's second margin hike this month and technical weakness.
Spot gold was up 0.5 percent at $1,759.99 an ounce by 2:32 PM EDT (1832 GMT) in choppy trade, about $60 above a session low of $1,702.44, its lowest in nearly two weeks. US December gold futures settled up $5.90 an ounce at $1,763.20. Trading volume was extremely heavy for a third straight day, on pace to be one of the highest this year. Spot silver rose 2.9 percent to $40.78 an ounce, now nearly $2 off its session lows. Among platinum group metals, spot platinum was up 0.6 percent at $1,813.24 an ounce, and spot palladium rose 0.5 percent to $747.83 an ounce.