Gold prices retreated more than 1 percent from record highs on Tuesday as a recovery in appetite for assets seen as higher risk, such as stocks, took the steam out of a rally that many saw as overdone above $1,900 an ounce.
The Shanghai Gold Exchange said on Tuesday that it will raise trading margins on three gold spot-deferred contracts to 12 percent from 11 percent from Aug. 26 to limit trading risks following recent wild price swings.
Spot gold soared to an all-time high above $1,910 on Tuesday, on course for its biggest monthly rise in 29 years, as persistent worries about global economic growth burnished bullion's safe-haven appeal.
The price of gold ripped past $1,900 per ounce Monday, boosted by fears of enough wealth-destroying developments to erase any doubts that the world's oldest safe-haven investment is still the world's No. 1 safe-haven investment.
Gold set a new record Monday as investors fled stocks, weakening currencies and U.S. Treasuries for the safety of gold and gold-related assets.
Gold rallied almost 2 percent to a record near $1,900 an ounce on Monday as a sputtering global economy boosted expectations for further monetary easing, raising bullion's appeal as a hedge against inflation.
Canada-based Silvercorp Metals Inc. said Monday it is buying a controlling share of Zhongxing Mining Co. Ltd. and Chuanxin Mining Co. Ltd. for $10.4 million.
The current bull market in gold is broadly based, not the result of speculators, and the rally has more room to run, a UBS analyst said Monday.
Sure Libya has one of the richest oil reserves in Africa, but it's got gold, too ... and lots of it.
Silver company shares led mining stocks higher Monday with many of the major companies posting gains between 5 percent and 7 percent.
Moves by the Swiss National Bank to curb strength of the Swiss franc will fuel investors' insatiable demand for gold, adding to its relentless rise to new record highs as confidence in the franc as a safe store of value dwindles.
Silver is set to sling-shot higher as it plays catchup to gold, creating big opportunities for investors, according to silver bulls.
The price of gold shot up to a record high Monday as traders abandoned other safe haven investments -- the ones governments can control -- for the world's oldest and most independent form of wealth.
Investors tucked into beaten down oil stocks, helping lift Europe's leading shares on Monday after a sharp retreat the previous week, while gold issues drew interest amid lingering worries about global growth.
Silver jumped early Monday by nearly 2 percent in what investors in the white metal hope will be the start of a rally that may resemble what gold has been experiencing.
The price of gold early Monday came within $2 of a record high $1,900 per ounce before settling back to 1.2 percent gain over Friday's closing price as a host of global economic worries drove investors into the security of the world's oldest form of money.
Miners helped Britain's bruised FTSE 100 stage a recovery on Monday, with Randgold Resources boosted by bullish gold prices and broker comment, and Anglo American up as it considered a bid for Australia's Macarthur Coal.
Gold prices rallied toward $1,900 an ounce on Monday as concerns over the global economic outlook fueled interest in the precious metal as a haven from risk and due to talk that weak U.S. growth could spark a further round of monetary easing.
European stocks looked set to extend four weeks of losses Monday, tracking jittery Asian shares lower, while gold shot to new highs as investors worried about the sluggish U.S. economic outlook and Europe's festering debt crisis.
Gold buyers in India, the world's largest consumer of the yellow metal, are investing in it on expectations prices may rise, but imports are likely to fall as limited budgets buy less gold, the head of India's biggest importing bank told Reuters on Saturday.
The higher gold climbs the more intense the debate between bulls and bears, those who think the yellow metal has a long way to run before it even approachs its 1980 inflation-adjusted high of $2,400 and those who say the latest nominal record of $1,852.20 is just waiting to pop.
Grant Thornton International, a global accounting and consulting firm, is warning that the worldwide mining sector faces an uncertain future in the shadow of increasing and unpredictable government intervention.
South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers said Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), the world's largest platinum producer, again raised its wage offer on Friday, trying to head off a strike that could cause a jump in global prices of the precious metal.
With gold prices vaulting 30 percent so far this year pawn shops and rare coin dealers are doing a land office business ... and close behind are the bad guys.
From dawn in Tokyo to dusk in New York on Friday, fear lifted gold to a record high -- its fifth such day in a row -- and boosted silver, too, as the world's investors succumbed to the accumulated effect of one emerging danger after another.
Gold and silver prices rose dramatically early Friday as investors fled crumbling Asian and European stock markets, but later in the session some of those early gains disappeared as investors began buying heavily discounted tech stocks.
Shares of silver mining companies charged out of the gate Friday, posting huge gains as the price of white metal also rose.
Gold mining company stocks jumped shortly after trading began Friday as the price of the yellow metal surged and the broader market resumed its downward spiral.
Gold vaulted 1.4 percent in the first two hours of trading Friday amid mounting concerns the U.S. economy is heading into another recession and as some European lenders faced a short-term funding crunch, highlighting the risk of a banking crisis.
The price of silver rose early Friday at a rate that was nearly double the rate at which gold is rising.
