* Weak dollar, oil gains, renewed Greek worry help gold
* Silver outperforms gold on speculative buying
* Coming up: U.S. consumer prices on Friday
(Recasts, adds comments, updates market activity, changes
byline, dateline, previously LONDON)
By Frank Tang
NEW YORK, April 14 (Reuters) - Gold rose 1 percent and
silver surged on Thursday, as a combination of dollar weakness,
crude oil gains and renewed Greek sovereign debt worries lifted
bullion to $10 below its record high.
Gold got a boost from inflation worry triggered by data
showing rising U.S. core producer prices in February, and as
higher-than-expected jobless claims knocked the dollar.
[]
Silver jumped 1.5 percent toward 31-year highs on strong
investment buying, sending the gold/silver ratio to a low.
"The combination of higher oil prices, weaker dollar and
the resurrection of discussions of Greek sovereign risk
problems has galvanized the gold market. It's particularly
impressive because we ran into selling above the market
yesterday," said James Steel, chief commodity analyst at HSBC.
Spot gold <XAU=> rose 0.9 percent to $1,467.81 an ounce by
11:28 a.m. EDT (1528 GMT), within striking distance of its
record $1,476.21 set on Monday. U.S. gold futures for June
delivery <GCM1> gained $13.80 to $1,469.40 an ounce.
Investors grew jittery on talk of debt restructuring by
Greece, the first euro zone member to receive a bailout a year
ago in the crisis that has driven Ireland and Portugal to seek
aid and forced draconian budget cuts in Spain. []
The European debt crisis has boosted gold this year and
also helped power the metal's 30 percent gain last year.
Silver <XAG=> climbed 1.6 percent to $41.28, near a 31-year
high at $41.93 an ounce. (Factbox: [])
"There is still a lot of speculative, investment money
coming into the gold market. Until there is a clear technical
signal that the situation is reversed, the momentum of silver
remains intact," Steel said.
Analysts are concerned silver may be overbought.
"I don't think it can sustain the market above $40 in the
longer term," Steel said.
Silver has rallied about 35 percent year to date on talk of
near-term supply tightness as a recovering global economy
boosted demand for the industrial metal.
The spread between gold and silver -- showing the relative
strength between the two metals -- has nearly halved since last
August as silver sharply outperformed bullion.
Holdings of the largest silver ETF, the iShares Silver
Trust <SLV.P>, slipped to 10,969.71 tonnes on Wednesday from
11,212.53 tonnes a day before. []
For platinum group metals, platinum <XPT=> gained 0.4
percent to $1,775.75, while palladium <XPD=> inched up 0.1
percent to $761.72.
Prices at 11:28 a.m. EDT (1528 GMT)
LAST NET PCT YTD
CHG CHG CHG
US gold <GCM1> 1469.40 13.80 1.0% 3.4%
US silver <SIK1> 41.305 1.083 2.7% 33.6%
US platinum <PLN1> 1781.80 4.60 0.3% 0.2%
US palladium <PAM1> 763.90 -1.40 -0.2% -4.9%
Gold <XAU=> 1467.81 13.20 0.9% 3.4%
Silver <XAG=> 41.28 0.66 1.6% 33.8%
Platinum <XPT=> 1775.75 6.60 0.4% 0.5%
Palladium <XPD=> 761.72 1.09 0.1% -4.7%
Gold Fix <XAUFIX=> 1465.75 8.25 0.6% 3.9%
Silver Fix <XAGFIX=> 40.67 45.00 1.1% 32.8%
Platinum Fix <XPTFIX=> 1772.00 12.00 0.7% 2.4%
Palladium Fix <XPDFIX=> 763.00 8.00 1.0% -3.5%
(Additional reporting by Jan Harvey in London; Editing by
David Gregorio)
