Gold jumped to a one-week high today as speculative buying picked up on a falling US dollar and surging crude oil to boost the metal's appeal as a hedge against inflation.
Gold hit a high of $954.50 an ounce before slipping to $945.60/946.40 an ounce, down from $949.00/949.80 an ounce late in New York on Wednesday. It was below a lifetime high of $1,030.80 touched on March 17th.
Platinum and silver hit their loftiest level in more than a week to track gains in gold, while palladium matched a near one-week high struck yesterday.
Gold has gained more than 20 per cent in 2008 on speculative buying driven by record high oil prices that raised fears of inflation, and expectations of further interest rate cuts in the United States, which reduced the dollar's appeal.
Some dealers said investors' confidence was gradually restored after last week's broad-based sell-off in commodities knocked down gold prices to a one-month low of around $904 an ounce.
The euro eased to $1.5810, having surged 2.7 per cent combined on Tuesday and yesterday, marking its biggest two-day rise against the dollar since January 2001, when the Federal Reserve started cutting rates to contain the last US recession.