Gold Advances to Highest Since May on Fed Stimulus Bets
Gold rose to the highest since early May on speculation that minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting may signal that the bank is ready to add more stimulus measures. Platinum climbed to a three-month high.
The U.S. central bank is slated to publish tomorrow minutes from its two-day meeting that ended on Aug. 1. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may talk about monetary stimulus options at a conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at the end of this month. Gold also gained as a weaker dollar boosted the metal’s appeal as an alternative investment.
“There’s a lot of monetary-easing chatter going around with the chairman going to Jackson Hole,” Frank McGhee, the head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago, said in a telephone interview.
Gold futures for December delivery increased 1.1 percent to $1,641.50 an ounce at 9:53 a.m. on the Comex in New York, after reaching $1,642.90, the highest since May 7. The price is headed for a fifth straight session of gains.
In 2010, at the Kansas City Fed’s annual monetary symposium in Jackson Hole, Bernanke foreshadowed a $600 billion bond- purchase program. Prices have jumped more than 30 percent since then.
The dollar fell as much as 0.7 percent against a basket of six currencies today.
Platinum futures for October delivery climbed 0.6 percent to $1,506.80 an ounce, after touching $1,509.60, the highest since May 9.
Lonmin Plc (LMI) said 33 percent of workers at the Marikana complex in South Africa, the biggest platinum-producing country, returned to work today after clashes with police last week led to strikers’ deaths. Police shot dead 34 striking workers and injured 78 others at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mining complex on Aug. 16.
To contact the reporters on this story: Joe Richter in New York at jrichter1@bloomberg.net; Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net
Gold Bulls Strongest in Nine Months as Hoard Builds
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Gold traders are the most bullish they've been in nine months.
Gold traders are the most bullish they've been in nine months. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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