Gold price hits $1,500-an-ounce

Gold hits new record price as global economic fears push investors into seeking safe havens Gold has smashed through the $1,500-an-ounce barrier for the first time, pushed higher by worries about global inflation, the European debt crisis and the state of the American economy. Spot gold set a new record of $1,501.26 (£917) an ounce in Asian trading, underpinned by a weak dollar. Standard & Poor’s downgrade of America’s debt outlook on Monday sparked a new flight into safe-haven investments. The ratings agency lowered its credit outlook to “negative” from “stable,” pointing to fiscal problems in the US. This sent shares tumbling and came at a time of fresh fears over the eurozone debt crisis, with Portugal edging closer to a bailout and Greece under pressure at home to default on its debt . US treasury secretary Tim Geithner, however, shrugged off S&P’s warnings and sought to reassure Wall Street that the world’s biggest economy would hang on to its gold-star AAA rating. Jonathan Barratt of Commodity Broking Services described the latest move in gold as “sensational”. He told Reuters: “Everything’s feeding into this – sovereign debt, the weaker dollar, inflation and investment demand. It is unusual to do it in Asian time. It goes to show how much appetite there is in Asia for bullion.” Analysts at Barclays Capital believe gold could go up to $1,520 an ounce in the next two to four weeks. Many investors see gold and other precious metals as the best place to park their money in times of uncertainty. Spot silver hit a 31-year high of $44.34 an ounce. Brian Ostroff of Windermere Capital described silver as “gold on steroids” on Tuesday. Gold has gained 32% over the past year, while silver has more than doubled in value. Gold Commodities United States Global economy Economics European debt crisis US economy Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 20, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.