Daily Gold Update

Source: MarketWatch

New York— Gold futures ended with modest gains Tuesday, as the dollar's weakness against the yen helped propel buying of the precious metal. Gold for February delivery rose $4.90 to end at $774.20 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the contract hit an intraday high of $780.70 an ounce in electronic trading on Globex. "Gold remains very oversold and continues to consolidate and build a firm base," said Mark O'Byrne, executive director of Gold and Silver Investments Ltd., in a research note.

In the currency markets, the dollar fell sharply against the Japanese yen, but was mixed against other major currencies. Dollar weakness typically boosts dollar-denominated commodities such as gold. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, traded at 85.91 compared with 85.618 in North American trading late Monday. See full story.