Capital Gold Group Report: GOLD ENDS UP $70 AS INVESTORS FLEE FINANCIAL TURMOIL
Its daily gain is the biggest in dollar terms since at least 1980
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures closed up $70 an ounce Wednesday, the biggest daily gain in dollar terms in more than two decades, as news of the U.S. government's takeover of the largest U.S. insurance company fueled massive safe-haven buying.
Concerns also built up after a run on a popular money-market fund.
Gold for December delivery jumped $70, or 9%, to end at $850.50 an
ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. That
represents gold's biggest one-day jump in dollar terms since at least
1980, the earliest year historical data were available on the Comex.
Gold futures started trading in the U.S. in 1974.
After the market closed, gold continued to rise more than $20 to $870.90 an ounce in electronic trading.
"Gold is acting like it is supposed to on a flight-to-safety move,"
said Amaury Conti, an equity trader at investment adviser Austin
Calvert-Flavin. "We have a global financial crisis and nobody has a
clear answer. Therefore stocks, currencies and debt are being
questioned and nobody wants to own a 'paper' asset," he said.
The U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday seized control of American International Group with an $85 billion bailout aimed at averting a potentially
catastrophic bankruptcy. The move was the government's latest and most
dramatic attempt yet to halt threats to the world's financial system. See full story.
The government's move came just two days after it refused to save Wall Street icon Lehman Brothers from a similar fate.
After AIG's takeover, the hunt resumed on Wall Street for the credit
crisis' next potential victims, with the market seeming to focus for
now on other investment firms Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in the U.S.
Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco Bullion Dealers, also pointed to concerns about Swiss bank UBS.
Meanwhile, the financial turmoil accelerated in Russia as trading on the country's major exchanges was halted for a second day and the finance ministry announced plans to loan the country's three largest banks up to $44 billion.
Meanwhile, the financial turmoil accelerated in Russia as trading on the country's major exchanges was halted for a second day and the finance ministry announced plans to loan the country's three largest banks up to $44 billion.
Also fueling the turmoil, market fund pioneer The Reserve shook the
market Wednesday when it cut the net asset value of its flagship
Primary Fund, leading firms like Deutsche Bank, Legg Mason and others
to try to calm investors and prevent a run on their funds.
Beyond gold, the recent turmoil could also encourage traders to put
their money back into commodities. It can "buy the commodities sector
some time," Nadler said.
"A stoppage of forced
sales and a hoped-for return of some of the speculative spirit in
various assets and the easing up in the hoarding of cash is what
markets are effectively expecting out of the Fed's move," he said.
The bug is back
Gold bugs were also quick to point out technical and fundamental support for the precious metals
According to Brien Lundin, editor of Gold Newsletter, a piling of short
positions -- or bets that gold would fall -- had led gold's recent
correction to under $750 an ounce. This, he said, was unjustified,
"just as gold's run over $1,000 this year was unjustified."
"Now, the fundamentals
of gold are coming back into play, and we're seeing the resulting
snap-back in the price," Lundin said.
"Physical demand is
breaking records, mining supply continues to fall, and the economic
environment is, of course, promoting safe-haven demand," Lundin
continued. "The shorts are covering, the funds are buying back in, and
everyone wants the safety of gold."
Dollar falls
Deepening financial upheavals also hit the dollar, which fell against
the euro and the British pound. T
A weakening dollar tends to raise dollar-denominated gold prices.
Also moving gold prices was crude oil. After slumping 10% in the past
two sessions, crude gained $2.35, or 2.6%, to $93.50 a barrel.
Other metals also moved higher. December silver surged 11% to $11.68 an
ounce, October platinum added 1.7% to $1,086.30 an ounce, and December
palladium rose 0.5% to $227.10 an ounce. However, copper for December
delivery fell slightly to $3.04 a pound.
In spot trading, the London gold fixing price used as a benchmark for gold for immediate delivery, stood at $813 an ounce Wednesday, up $33.5 from Tuesday afternoon.Capital Gold Group, gold group, gold, gold prices, gold news, gold coins, gold bullion, gold IRA, IRA gold
