Daily Gold Update

Source: Dr. Bill Musgrave, American Gold Exchange

Austin— Gold gained 0.4%, extending Friday's rally of 1.2% after U.S. non-farms payrolls added 163,000 jobs in July and the ISM services sector showed improvement. The dollar fell for a second day and equities rose as investors moved out of cash and into assets offering higher expected returns. Silver and palladium followed gold higher by adding 0.2% while platinum fell 0.9%.

At the close: December gold rose $6.90 to $1,616.20; September silver added 6 cents, or 0.2% to $27.86; October platinum fell $12.50 to $1,401.90; and September palladium picked up $1.35 to $579.55 an ounce.

Gold was also supported by safe-haven inflows from the eurozone after Italian and Spanish officials voiced reluctance to request aid from the ECB because of the conditions that might be imposed. Last week, ECB president Mario Drahgi stipulated that formal requests from beleagured governments would be a prerequisite for bailout funds. Several ECB members are resistant to further bond-buying.

Data compiled by Bloomberg show that hedge funds and other money managers are becoming more bullish on gold, increasing their bets on higher gold prices by 35% in the week ended July 31. Despite last week's surprising jobs report, the majority of Wall Street traders still expect QE3 because of unemployment rising to 8.3% and general slackness in the economy. In another sign of positive sentiment for gold, holdings rose by six metric tons last week in the world�s largest gold-backed ETF, SPDR Gold Trust.