Gold futures rose to a record $1,260.90 an ounce on demand for a haven amid Europe’s fiscal woes and dimming prospects for the U.S. economy.

The metal has climbed 15 percent this year, outperforming equities and bonds, while the euro has slumped 14 percent. A majority of Greeks believe the country may go bankrupt, an opinion poll showed. Spain faces 24.7 billion euros of maturing debt in July and may need to use a European Union financial lifeline.

“The problems over in Europe are just as pernicious over here in the U.S.,” said Michael Pento, the chief economist at Delta Global Advisors Inc. “You can’t trust sovereign debt and sovereign currency. Gold is the only real honest money that we have.”

Gold futures for August delivery rose $9.30, or 0.7 percent, to $1,258 at 10:06 a.m. on the Comex in New York. The previous record was $1,254.40 on June 8. This month, the metal reached all-time highs in euros, U.K. pounds and Swiss francs.

Gold for immediate delivery reached a record $1,259.68 today.

Yesterday, reports showed U.S. jobless claims rose unexpectedly and manufacturing in the Philadelphia region missed forecasts by analysts.

“People are looking at the euro as a wake-up call and they’re skeptical of a U.S. recovery,” said Adam Klopfenstein, a senior market strategist at Lind-Waldock, a broker in Chicago. “The big fear is that there are going to be other governments who are going to have sovereign-debt risks. People are clamoring to get into gold.”

$1,600 Forecast

Gold may reach $1,400 this year and rise as high as $1,600 in 2011 should the Federal Reserve be forced to keep interest rates at a record low to stimulate the economy, Pento of Delta Global said.

Assets in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange-traded fund backed by bullion, increased 1.83 metric tons to a record 1,307.96 tons yesterday.

China should increase its holdings of precious metals and oil, Yin Zhongqing, the vice chairman of the finance committee of the National People’s Congress, said today at a conference in Shanghai. Gold accounts for 1.6 percent of China’s reserves, according to the World Gold Council.

“If we come to understand that gold is now a truly reservable asset, we can understand how it can be that bonds can rally on deflation news and gold can do the same,” said Dennis Gartman, an economist and the editor of the Suffolk, Virginia- based Gartman Letter. “Precious metals are no longer driven by fears of inflation, but by the notion that precious metals are currencies.”

Silver futures for July delivery rose 27.4 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $19.05 an ounce on the Comex.
Platinum futures for July delivery climbed $1.60, or 0.1 percent, to $1,573.60 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Palladium futures for September delivery gained $2.90, or 0.6 percent, to $484.15 an ounce.

By Pham-Duy Nguyen

Tags: economists, euro zone, european economy, financial, money, precious metal, us economy, us federal reserve, us recovery

This entry was posted on Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 11:11 am and is filed under Debt, Global Economy, Global Financial, Market Finance, european economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.