By Anushree Mukherjee
(Reuters) – Gold prices hit record highs on Thursday as uncertainty surrounding the U.S. presidential elections and the war in the Middle East prompted investors to seek out the safe-haven asset, while easing monetary policy environment kept prices elevated.
Spot gold rose 0.7% to $2,690.60 per ounce by 1:42 p.m. ET (1742 GMT). U.S. gold futures settled 0.6% higher at $2,707.5.
Gold has seen a surge of over 30% this year, surpassing record levels, driven by prospects of further Federal Reserve rate cuts after a half percentage point rate cut last month and ongoing geopolitical uncertainties.
“On top of the concerns in the Middle East, you are also nearing the U.S. election, which is looking like a very closely contested election. And that generates a whole host of uncertainty, and gold often is the place to go in times of uncertainty,” Nitesh Shah, commodity strategist at WisdomTree, said.
Gold prices are expected to rise to $2,941 a troy ounce over the next 12 months, delegates to the London Bullion Market Association’s annual gathering predicted earlier this week.
“The LBMA poll that came out from Miami earlier in the week, where the base look for gold prices was to rally near $3,000 in the next year and silver doing even better, I think that potential is also just attracting a bit of attention,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.
Earlier in the U.S. session, prices had backed off from record highs after data showed U.S. retail sales increased slightly more than expected in September while a labor Department report said unemployment unexpectedly fell last week.
“Those two reports fall into the camp of the monetary policy hawks,” Jim Wyckoff, senior market analyst at Kitco Metals, said.
Gold, which yields no interest on its own, tends to gain when interest rates are cut.
The European Central Bank also cut interest rates for the third time this year by quarter-point.
Elsewhere, spot silver fell 0.3% to $31.56 per ounce. Platinum rose 0.1% to $994.00 and palladium gained 1.7% to $1,041.
(Reporting by Anushree Mukherjee, Swati Verma and Rahul Paswan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
