Daily Gold Update

Source: Myra P. Saefong, CBS.MarketWatch.com

New York— Shares of gold companies, as well as gold futures prices climbed Wednesday amid weakness in the stock market.

Investors often use gold as a hedge against losses in stock market volatility.

On the Commodities Exchange division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, February gold rose 90 cents to $274.20 an ounce and March silver gained 0.07 cents to $4.79.

Comex gold warehouse stocks were unchanged at 1,863,611 ounces as of late Tuesday, and silver stocks fell 80,163 ounces to 95,637,096 ounces.

January platinum fell $5.40 to $602 an ounce, while March palladium declined by $16.80 an ounce to $851.20.

March copper added 0.3 cent to 87.20 an ounce. Early Wednesday, London Metals Exchange warehouse stocks fell 1,675 metric tons to 344,725 metric tons, and late Tuesday, Comex copper stocks were up 124 short tons to 65,067 metric tons.

In the stock market, the CBOE Gold Index rose 0.6 percent to 30.16, while the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index gained 0.6 percent to 48.27.

Individually, Newmont Mining climbed 13 cents to $15.56 in recent trading and Placer Dome Gold shares added 13 cents to $9.19.