<\/p>\n
Singapore – Gold climbed above $1 100 an ounce for the first time in nine weeks on Thursday as investors channelled money into the safe-haven metal amid a global stock market rout, worries over the Chinese economy and heightened geopolitical tensions.<\/strong><\/p>\n China stocks fell 7% on Thursday after less than half an hour of trading, triggering a circuit breaker that suspended trading for the rest of the day.<\/p>\n China also guided the yuan sharply lower, deepening concerns about the economy and sending Asian shares to a three-month low.<\/p>\n Spot gold rose to a nine-week high of $1 102.80\/oz, before paring some gains to trade up 0.5% at $1 099.32 by 06:44 GMT. US gold futures also jumped for a fourth straight session to a nine-week high of $1 102.50.<\/p>\n “Gold continued to climb with rising safe-haven demand amid the rebound in market volatility. Rising equities losses and surprising devaluation of the yuan are painting a positive picture for gold,” ANZ said.<\/p>\n Gold, often seen as an alternative investment during times of geopolitical and financial uncertainty, benefited from the risk-averse sentiment in the market along with other haven assets such as the Japanese yen and US Treasuries.<\/p>\n “Gold is clearly re-establishing its role as a safe haven. For as long as global stock markets \u2013 in particular China’s \u2013 appear wobbly, gold is likely to attract a good bid,” HSBC analyst James Steel said.<\/p>\n A raft of data releases from China in coming weeks is likely to show activity continuing to slow, adding to global concerns about the country’s economic outlook for 2016.<\/p>\n The World Bank on Wednesday cut its global economic growth forecast for 2016, citing the weak performance of major emerging market economies.<\/p>\n Adding to market fears was North Korea’s announcement that it had successfully tested a powerful nuclear bomb on Wednesday, a move that escalated tensions in the Korean peninsula.<\/p>\n The news came just days after tensions flared in the Middle East between Saudi Arabia and Iran after Riyadh executed a Shiite cleric critical of Saudi policy.<\/p>\n Bullion was also supported by a softer dollar and the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting. The minutes assured markets that the Fed would hike rates gradually this year.<\/p>\n Among other precious metals, silver and platinum rose, tracking gold.<\/p>\n Palladium, which as an auto catalyst metal is more exposed to economic weakness, slid to a near-five-and-a-half year low of $501\/oz before paring some losses to trade down 0.9%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gold reaches 9-wk high amid global stock market rout Singapore – Gold climbed above $1 100 an ounce for the first time in nine weeks on Thursday as investors channelled money into the safe-haven metal amid a global stock market rout, worries over the Chinese economy and heightened geopolitical tensions. China stocks fell 7% …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-te-public"],"yoast_head":"\n