Gold higher, as silver set for 12% weekly spike
Gold for December delivery GCZ3 +0.13% rose $2.50, or 0.2%, to $1,363.40 an ounce in electronic trading, moving toward a weekly rise of 4%, according to FactSet data.
On Thursday, gold staged a safe-haven rally, leaving prices up by $27.50, or 2%, on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures for the yellow metal were on track for a weekly rise of about 4%, the strongest gain since the week ending July 12.
Silver for September delivery SIU3 +0.15% on Friday picked up 8 cents, or 0.3%, to $23.01 an ounce, building on Thursday’s surge of $1.14, or 5.2%. The move put silver prices up by more than 12% for the week, the biggest percentage increase since October 2011.
Some analysts have credited strong physical demand and expectations of an improving global economy among the reasons for silver’s recent surge.
The commodity complex has started to recover after being “terribly oversold due to fears of a pronounced China slowdown,” wrote Zulauf Asset Management AG President Felix Zulauf in a report released this week by Itaú BBA.
“Sentiment has become highly pessimistic, and this current recovery will turn sentiment around, as short positions must be covered,” he said.
Gold’s “medium-term rally is still youthful and has the potential to push to the mid-$1,400 zone,” Zulauf said. “It is doubtful it will go much beyond it at the present time, but a lot will depend what central banks do in their policy-setting.”
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