Daily Gold Update

Source: MarketWatch

New York— 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. 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. See full story.