Gold Rises for Second Day as Greek Crisis Spurs Demand for Haven

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Gold futures rose for the second straight session as Greece™s political crisis and a decline in equities spurred demand for the precious metal as an alternative asset.

The euro weakened to the lowest since March 2006 amid a debate on Greece™s membership in the European Union. Those concerns helped push the Standard & Poor™s 500 Index of stocks toward its first four-day slump in 12 months. Last year, gold fell 1.5 percent as U.S. equities climbed to a record.

On the Comex in New York, gold futures for February delivery advanced 1.5 percent to settle at $1,204 an ounce at 1:48 p.m. On Jan. 2, the price rose 0.2 percent.

Speculation that the European Central Bank is moving closer to large-scale sovereign-bond purchases pushed the euro lower, helping gold priced in the currency to climb to the highest since September 2013.

Source : Bloomberg