Gold, Silver Futures Climb as U.S. Dollar Retreats

Precious metals advanced Wednesday amid weakness in the U.S. dollar and a worse than expected report on the state of the U.S. labor market.

COMEX gold futures settled higher by $9.10, or 0.5%, at $1,749.50 per ounce.  The yellow metal reached an intra-day high of $1,754.00 this morning, but pared its gains as the dollar recouped a portion of its losses.

Silver futures for March delivery closed with a gain of $0.55, or 1.6%, at $33.81 per ounce on the COMEX.  Gold’s sister precious metal mounted several intra-day attacks on the $34 level but was unable to surpass it.

The U.S. Dollar Index – which measures the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of the world’s leading currencies – fell as much as 0.8% to 78.62 this morning but was lower by just 0.4% at 78.935 this afternoon. The euro currency climbed 0.6% to 1.3159 against the dollar as sovereign debt concerns in Europe continued to ease.