A Weaker Dollar Helps Gold Top $1,700 Mark
NEW YORK -- Gold futures locked in their second day of gains Thursday, spurred on by a weaker dollar and investors cheering the Federal Reserve's expectations of a protracted period of low interest rates.</br></br>The most actively traded contract, for February delivery, gained $26.60, or 1.6%, to settle at $1,726.70 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the highest settlement price in seven weeks.</br></br>Front-month January-delivery gold ended $26.50, or 1.6%, higher at $1,726.30 a troy ounce, its first settlement above $1,700 since Dec. 9.</br></br>Fed officials said in a statement Wednesday they expected short-term interest rates to remain near zero until late 2014, citing a slow recovery in the labor market and moderating inflation.</br></br>"Even though this was well-anticipated by a large quarter of the market, it still had quite a notable impact" on gold, said James Steel, precious-metals analyst with HSBC.