Daily Gold Update

Source: Marketwatch

San Francisco— Gold futures rose to a fresh record high Tuesday, as traders sold equities and the U.S. dollar and bought precious metals, including palladium and silver. Gold for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, gained $24.50, or 2%, to $1,271.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It earlier hit an intraday high of $1,273 an ounce. "The metal remains driven by technical and investment-related buying," said James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com, in a note to clients.

Precious metals remained well bid even after the Commerce Department said U.S. retail sales rose 0.4% in August, more than the 0.3% economists expected. A gain of 1% for business inventories also didn't temper gains. Moore said that silver and palladium are leading the gains, adding that yen strength is boosting the platinum-group metals. "Silver is getting the double benefit of investor diversification and improving industrial demand," he also said. "Technically silver looks very well and may challenge the 2008 record daily close of $20.81 an ounce," analysts at GoldCore said in a note. See full story.