Media Coverage

By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch 
Last Update: 12:24 PM ET Oct 1, 2007

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures climbed to their highest point in almost 28 years on Monday, rebounding from earlier losses, with palladium and copper also posting strong gains.

Gold for December delivery gained $1.80 to $751.80 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, the contract hit $755, the highest level seen in nearly 28 years. The record intraday all-time high for a benchmark gold contract on NYMEX stands at $875, set on Jan. 21, 1980.

"It's wait-and-see for the moment, but do not be very surprised if wider ranges manifest themselves later today and tomorrow," said Jon Nadler, a senior analyst at Kitco Bullion Dealers, in a research note.

"Last week, each attempt at a correction was truncated by predictably bad news from the U.S. economic front," except for the revision of second-quarter GDP, Nadler said.
On Friday, gold futures surged $10.10, or 1.5%, to end at $750. The contract had hit an intraday high of $752.50 an ounce.

"The risk of a profit-taking correction is high," said James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com, reiterating previous comments about the gold market. "However, we still believe there is more than enough momentum for the rally to continue."

On the currency markets, the dollar sank to fresh all-time low against the euro. The European currency moved as high as $1.4282 against the greenback in Asian trading before edging back down to $1.4223 by midday Monday.

The Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the dollar against a basket of currencies, rose 0.4% at 77.99.

Other metals prices traded mixed.

December palladium rallied $7, or 2%, to $358.95 an ounce, and December copper rose 4.15 cents, or 1.1%, to $3.6815 a pound.

December silver fell 9.50 cents to $13.825 an ounce, and October platinum dropped $3.80 to trade at $1,391.40 an ounce.

Elsewhere on the commodity markets, crude-oil futures fell sharply.

Inventories and indexes
Gold warehouse inventories rose by 79,316 troy ounces to stand at 7.1 million troy ounces as of late Friday, according to NYMEX data. Silver supplies fell to 132.6 million troy ounces, down 1.4 million troy ounces, and copper supplies were unchanged at 20,115 short tons.

Polya Lesova is a MarketWatch reporter based in New York.