Investing.com -- Gold surged to fresh 3-week highs, despite a broadly stronger dollar, as investors continued to pile into the safe-have asset amid little indication that major central banks worldwide are ready to abandon a guiding principle of maintaining interest rates at historic lows.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, Gold for August delivery traded between $1,259.00 and $1,273.45 an ounce before settling at $1,271.40, up 9.10 or 0.72%. Gold has closed higher in four of the last six sessions, three of which included gains of at least 0.70%. The precious metal is steadily approaching 15-month highs of $1,300 from early-May, on the back of the latest rally. Since the start of the year, gold futures are up by more than 15% holding onto gains from the strongest first quarter of a year in more than a decade.
Gold likely gained support at $1,125.00, the low from February 3 and was met with resistance at $1,304.40, the high from May 2.
On Thursday, a survey of leading economists from Reuters showed there is a 40% chance the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in July, according to median projection, along with a 65% probability of an initial rate hike in September. Economists have virtually taken a June rate hike off the table following a dismal U.S. jobs report in May when the economy added its fewest nonfarm payrolls in nearly six years. At the same time, market players have engaged in a flight to safety to low-risk assets such as gold and the yen, as financial stocks and bond yields continue to tumble.
Any rate hikes by the Fed this year are viewed as bearish for gold, which struggles to compete with high yield bearing assets in rising rate environments.
A day earlier, Bloomberg reported that billionaire investor George Soros has taken a more active role in his family's trading activity, amid widespread concerns related to the weakness of the global economy. Last month, reports surfaced that Soros purchased more than 19 million shares of miner Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX) for approximately $264 million, while investing in more than 1 million call options in the SPDR Gold Trust ETF, carrying a value of $123 million.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the strength of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, surged more than 0.50% to an intraday high of 94.08. The index has crashed by more than 5% since early-December. Dollar-denominated commodities such as gold become more expensive for foreign purchasers when the dollar appreciates.
Silver for July delivery jumped 0.295 or 1.71% to $17.280 an ounce.
Copper for July delivery fell 0.024 or 1.14% to $2.038 a pound