Gold prices are climbing for the second time in three days on speculation that moves by the world's central banks to bolster economic growth will spur demand for the metal as a hedge against inflation. Last month, the Fed announced a third round of quantitative easing and the ECB pledged to buy more debt, causing huge increases in the price of gold.
By Nicholas Larkin and Debarati Roy
Oct 3, 2012 7:02 AM MT
Bloomberg
Gold was climbing in New York for the second time in three days on speculation that moves by the world’s central banks to bolster economic growth will spur demand for the metal as a hedge against inflation.
Gold advanced 5.1 percent last month as the Federal Reserve announced a third round of quantitative easing, the European Central Bank pledged to buy more debt, and the Bank of Japan (8301) added to an asset-purchase fund to boost growth. The U.S. Labor Department will release the latest employment figures on Oct. 5.
“The quantitative easing announcements continue to support the market,” Sterling Smith, a futures specialist at Citigroup Inc.’s institutional client group in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “The market will be closely watching the payroll numbers as that will tell us how the economy is doing.”
Gold futures for December delivery rose 0.2 percent to $1,778.50 an ounce at 10:01 a.m. on the Comex in New York. Futures reached $1,794.40 on Oct. 1, the highest since Nov. 14.
The U.S. jobless rate rose to 8.2 percent last month from 8.1 percent in August, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before the Labor Department report.
Silver futures for December delivery climbed 0.1 percent to $34.69 an ounce in New York.
To contact the reporters on this story: Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net; Debarati Roy in New York at droy5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net
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