Futures Markets: Dollar's Plunge Ignites Rallies in Gold, Stock-Index, Foreign-Currency Contracts --- A Wall Street Journal News Roundup
The dollar's continued rapid descent buoyed spirits in commodity and other futures trading pits around the country, igniting sharp price rallies in gold, stock-index and foreign-currency futures and contributing to grain and sugar futures rallies.</br></br>Gold prices rose almost $7 to nearly $420 an ounce. Stock-index futures tracked the stock market's surge, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 22 points. Sugar prices spurted 3/8 cent a pound at one point and some soybean futures prices closed nearly four cents a bushel higher.</br></br>"With the dollar crashing, there's a new fear that there will be a rush back to gold once again," said Scott Mondry, bullion trader at Republic National Bank of New York. Added William O'Neill, research director for Elders Futures Inc., "Gold traded tick for tick with the currencies the entire day."</br></br>On the Commodity Exchange in New York, gold contracts for February delivery surged $6.90 an ounce to $419.20 on heavy volume. Silver futures prices on the Comex rose 5.5 cents an ounce to $5.64. Meanwhile, platinum contracts for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $6.30 to $537 an ounce.</br></br>"Currency euphoria was the sole propellant," said a gold trader in New York.