NEW YORK — Gold rose to its highest price Tuesday since March 2008, topping $1,000 an ounce, while silver climbed to a 13-month high as a weaker dollar and concern that inflation may accelerate boosted the appeal of precious metals.
Bullion surged as high as $1,009.70 in New York, within 3 percent of the record of $1,033.90 set in March 2008. The metal is headed for a ninth annual gain. Crude oil and all six industrial metals on the London Metal Exchange rallied as the U.S. Dollar Index fell as much as 1.2 percent to an 11-month low. Raw materials rise when the greenback falls.
Silver futures for December delivery advanced 22.5 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $16.51 an ounce on the Comex, after touching $16.86, the highest for a most-active contract since Aug. 5, 2008.
The metal has climbed 46 percent this year.
“The market thinks inflation is coming,” said Leonard Kap lan, the president of Prospector Asset Management in Evanston, Ill.
He has been trading gold for more than 30 years and thinks gold won’t stay above $1,000 for long.
“With interest rates so low, money is chasing money and the dollar is getting murdered,” he said.
Governments have cut interest rates and boosted spending to fight the worst recession since World War II, spurring investors to buy bullion as a hedge against the prospect of accelerating inflation and currency debasement.
Gold advanced $3.10, or 0.3 percent, to $999.80 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division.
