Gold prices were at record highs Tuesday following word that the Bank of Korea had made its first gold purchase in more than a decade and as global economic concerns reinforced gold’s image as a safe haven from a turbulent stock market.
Near-term gold futures in New York jumped $22.90 to close at a record $1,641.90 an ounce.
Silver also gained, rising 78 cents to $40.08 an ounce, although the white metal has been stuck in a narrow range in recent weeks even as gold has continued to surge.
“The flight-to-quality money is flowing into gold,” Adam Klopfenstein, a senior strategist at MF Global Holdings, told Bloomberg News. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about the global economic recovery.”
From Reuters:
South Korea spent more than a billion dollars in its first gold purchase in more than a decade, as uncertainty about global growth and sovereign debt push central banks around the world to diversify foreign reserves.
A brittle global economic recovery and precarious debt conditions in the United States and Europe have boosted the safe-haven appeal of gold, lifting bullion to a record high on Friday.
The Bank of Korea said in a statement on Tuesday it bought 25 tonnes of gold over the past two months, raising its gold holding to 39.4 tonnes.
Gold's price now is up 15.5% year to date. Silver is up 30%, but nearly all of that gain occurred amid frenzied buying in the first quarter. Silver peaked at $48.58 an ounce on April 29.
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--Stuart Pfeifer
Photo: Gold bars on a table awaiting transport at a plant of gold refiner and bar manufacturer Argor-Heraeus SA in the southern Swiss town of Mendrisio November 13, 2008. Credit: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
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