Daily Gold Update

Source: MarketWatch

New York— Gold futures rose Thursday, gaining ground as gloomy economic news and falling crude-oil prices stepped up investors' interest in safe-haven buying. First-time filings for unemployment benefits shot up to their highest level since July 1992, U.S. government data for last week showed. Meanwhile, crude-oil futures dropped to below $50 a barrel for the first time since January 2007. And in the equities market, U.S. stocks gyrated on the heels of heavy selling in Europe and overnight in Asia.

That gold held its ground in the face of a global pullback in stocks and a resumption of pressure on crude futures "confirmed its safe-haven status," said Mark O'Byrne, executive director at Gold and Silver Investments. Gold for December delivery rose $12.70, or 1.7%, to end at $748.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rallied to $753.40 earlier. See full story.