December contract climbs closer to $1,180 on Globex
By Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch
TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures climbed even further in electronic trading on Globex late Wednesday morning in Asia, with the December contract tapping a record level of nearly $1,180, buoyed by ongoing investment demand on continued weakness in the U.S. dollar.
A pullback in U.S. equity losses also encouraged investors. Stocks still finished lower Tuesday, but pared earlier steep declines, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU 10,434, -17.24, -0.16%) finishing down 17 points at 10,433, well off an earlier low of 10,359..
"Investors were impressed with the recovery in the Dow late Tuesday (New York time)," said Darin Newsom, a senior analyst at Telvent DTN.
"Combine that with the slide in the U.S. dollar back below 75.00 and the same old factors are kicking in: strong investment demand coupled with fears of inflation," he said, referring to the level of dollar index (DXY 74.94, -0.13, -0.17%) , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six other major currencies.
Gold for December delivery climbed to a fresh contract high of $1,176.80 an ounce on Globex by the late morning in Tokyo. It was last up $10.70 at $1,176.50.
The contract finished up $1.10 at $1,165.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday, marking its eighth consecutive session of gains.
"As it is, Sir Isaac Newton looks to be right again," said Newsom. "An object in motion (gold) tends to stay in motion (trending higher) until acted upon by an outside force (money changes direction)."
