Source: Myra P. Saefong, CBS.MarketWatch.com
San Francisco— Silver futures climbed to a level not seen in more than three years and gold futures turned higher Thursday, with the Sept. 11 anniversary and a rise in U.S. jobless claims rekindling metals' attraction as a hedge against economic uncertainty.
"As long as jobs are slow to rebound, the Fed will keep interest rates low and that is what the metals markets like," said Todd Hultman, president of Dailyfutures.com, a commodity information provider.
"This is the best financial environment for gold and silver in over 20 years and the market is slowly starting to realize it," he said.
Silver for December delivery rose to a session high at $5.37 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange — the highest futures price since February of 2000. The contract was up 8.5 cents at $5.35 in recent dealings.
December gold rose 20 cents to stand at $381.30 an ounce after falling earlier to a low at $375.70.
Metals trading on the exchange opened as usual, but the trading floor observed four minutes of silence in remembrance of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and 21 minutes of silence to honor colleagues who died.
Strength in the dollar against the euro has "put some pressure on the shiny mineral," said Charles Nedoss, an analyst at Peak Trading Group. And strength in the broader stock market kept a lid on investor interest for the metal.
Eyes on $400 gold
James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com in London, says that "with investor interest still growing, active producer de-hedging and a potential renewal of the Washington Gold Agreement as early as the end of the month, the potential is there for a push to $400," he said. The Washington Agreement of 1999 is a pact among 15 central banks in which they set limits on each year's sales of the metal from sovereign vaults.
After breaking a five-session winning streak on Wednesday, palladium futures continued lower.
December palladium fell by $2.40 to $218.25 an ounce. As for its sister metal, October platinum declined by $1 to $698 an ounce.
Also on Nymex, December copper tacked on 2.1 cents to stand at 83.1 cents a pound, with strength in the broader markets indicating the likelihood of higher demand for the industrial metal.
As for supplies, Nymex gold inventories were unchanged at 2.73 million troy ounces as of late Wednesday.
Silver inventories were also flat at 105.9 million troy ounces, while copper stocks fell 196 short tons to 302,189 short tons.
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