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Gold rebounds as euro recovery benefits commodities

LONDON - Gold rose more than 1 percent in Europe on Thursday, recovering from four sessions of losses, as a drop in the value of the dollar versus the euro helped commodity prices to recoup some of this week’s hefty losses.

Spot gold was bid at $1,356.40 an ounce at 1041 GMT, against $1,335.70 late in New York on Wednesday. U.S. gold futures for December delivery rose $19.20 an ounce to $1,356.10.

“Having held $1,330, and with the dollar a bit weaker and the euro recovering a bit, we are just following the trend back up again,” said Simon Weeks, head of precious metals at the Bank of Nova Scotia.

Raw materials like gold, platinum, copper and crude oil had all seen heavy losses this week on talk of a possible Chinese interest rate hike, and as concerns over debt levels in the euro zone pressured the single currency against the dollar.

But commodities bounced back on Thursday as the euro rose 1 percent against the dollar amid speculation a Spanish government bond auction would see good demand, and optimism that aid would soon be granted to debt-laden Ireland.

Ireland’s central bank chief said on Thursday he expected the country to receive tens of billions of euros in loans from European partners and the IMF to help shore up its shattered banks and stabilise the economy.

Oil prices rebounded from four-week lows and base metals rose on Thursday as dollar weakness and cautious optimism about Ireland’s debt crisis rekindled interest in commodities, while European equities climbed for a second straight day.

Prior to its latest correction gold climbed 30 percent this year to a record $1,424.10 an ounce, lifted by concern over sovereign debt and the stability of the currency markets, before being hit heavily this week by weakness in other commodities.

Currencies still volatile

“At one point, everyone was selling commodities,” said Weeks. “People had been good buyers, everyone had put risk back on the books, and suddenly they got panicky about China and started liquidating, and gold got caught up in that.”

“But I do think it will reassert itself on the crosses at some point as a currency, because clearly people don’t like the currency markets. Generally speaking, whichever currency you are looking at people aren’t really that comfortable.”

Among other precious metals, silver rose to $26.42 an ounce against $25.61, though it remains well below the 30-year high of $29.33 an ounce it hit earlier in November.

The world’s biggest silver exchange-traded fund, the iShares Silver Trust, said its holdings climbed to a record 10,773.56 tonnes on Wednesday, from 10,718.82 tonnes on Nov 10.

Metals research and consulting firm GFMS said on Wednesday that silver is likely to rise above $30 an ounce and average $28 in 2011, lifted by strong investment buying and recovering fabrication demand.

Platinum was at $1,651.49 an ounce against $1,633.49, while palladium was at $679.97 against $660.25.

Palladium holdings of ETFS Physical Palladium Shares, the physically-backed exchange-traded product operated by a unit of London’t ETF Securities, held at a record high of 920,362 ounces on Wednesday, the company’s website showed

Holdings of ETFS Physical Platinum Shares were at 343,132 ounces, their highest since early May.