Commodities: Gold hits record high
Gold soared to a record high Tuesday as traders considered a weaker dollar and ongoing tensions between the US and Iran following an incident in the Strait of Hormuz at the weekend.
February gold futures closed $18.30 higher at $880.30 an ounce, an all-time best finish, and also topped the previous intraday record of $875 seen in 1980, hitting $883.80 earlier on.
There were also big gains for silver, copper, platinum and palladium.
Concerns that US crude inventories will fall for the eighth week in a row Wednesday had oil heading higher, snapping a three-day losing streak.
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US light crude for February delivery ended the session up $1.24 at $96.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, although that was over a dollar lower than its best levels of the day.
Experts are forecasting a 300,000 barrel drop in supplies when the US Energy Information Administration reports for the week ending 4 January.
In addition, the EIA said it reckons crude prices will average $94 in January and $87 for the whole of 2008, that’s up on the $72 a barrel average for 2007.
