Gold jumped about 2 percent on Tuesday as traders bet that a possible Barack Obama victory in the US election would mean further Federal Reserve stimulus, and prices also got a technical bounce from a support level. Spot gold gained 1.9 percent to $1,716.35 an ounce by 3:47 pm EST (2047 GMT), sharply above a nine-week low of $1,672.24 set on Monday. US COMEX gold futures for December settled up $31.80 at $1,715, with trading volume almost 10 percent above its 250-day average, preliminary Reuters data showed.
Gold rose near $1,800 an ounce last month on central-bank stimulus measures but the rally has faded as encouraging US economic data including last Friday's strong jobs data lowered optimism driven by monetary policies. Silver, which tends to track gold but can be more volatile, jumped 2.9 percent to $32.04 an ounce. Among platinum group metals, platinum was up 0.8 percent at $1,552.25 and palladium rose 1.1 percent to $615.80.