NEW YORK: Gold, oil and other commodities climbed Tuesday as the dollar fell to fresh lows.
The December gold contract rose US$7.50 to settle at US$1,065 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier rising as high as US$1,069.70, a new record.
It was the tenth straight day that gold prices finished above the $1,000 mark - a first in gold trading.
December silver hit a fresh 15-month high, rising to $18.075 before settling at $17.84 an ounce, up 2 cents.
The gains came as the dollar lost more ground against other currencies including the euro and the British pound, which makes dollar-priced commodities more attractive to foreign buyers.
The ICE Futures U.S. dollar index, which measures the dollar against a basket of other major currencies, dropped to a 14-month low.
The drop in the dollar also helped push energy prices higher.
Crude oil for November delivery gained 88 cents to settle at $74.15 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Oil prices have risen for four straight days and a barrel costs 4 percent more than it did one week ago.
The dollar has weakened steadily over the past several months, and analysts largely expect the dollar to continue to fall as U.S. interest rates remain at record lows.
Among other precious metals, October platinum rose $13.40 to $1,352.80 an ounce, after earlier hitting a contract high of $1,357.80.
Bucking the trend, December copper futures fell 6.25 cents to $2.7945 a pound.
Elsewhere on the Nymex, heating oil rose almost 3 cents to settle at $1.9234 a gallon, and gasoline for November delivery gained about 3.3 cents to settle at $1.8318 a gallon.
Earlier Tuesday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries offered up some good news for energy traders, projecting that world oil demand will grow by almost 1 percent next year due to the rebounding global economy.
OPEC, however, did caution that the pace of the recovery is far from certain.
The 12-nation group that supplies over 35 percent of the world's oil said demand was expected to grow by 700,000 barrels per day to average 84.9 million barrels per day.
That's 200,000 barrels more per day than was forecast in the September report.
On the Chicago Board of Trade, December wheat futures rose 17 cents to $5.1125 a bushel, while December corn futures rose 0.5 cents to $3.8175 a bushel.
