* Weak dollar, oil gains, renewed Greek worry help gold
* Silver outperforms gold on speculative buying
* Gold gains as Fed officials see no immediate tightening
* Coming up: U.S. March consumer prices on Friday
(Recasts, adds comments, updates market activity)
By Frank Tang
NEW YORK, April 14 (Reuters) - Gold rose over 1 percent and
silver surged on Thursday, as a combination of dollar weakness,
inflation worries and renewed Greek sovereign debt worries
lifted bullion to $5 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 nearly 3 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 1.1 percent to $1,471.09 an ounce by
1:19 p.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 $16.50 to $1,472.10 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.
Bullion investors took heart as the dollar fell and further
losses were seen as likely, hurt by reported by central bank
selling amid a backdrop of low U.S. interest rates that were
not expected to rise any time soon. []
The recent surge in oil prices is no prelude to broader
price increases that would force the U.S. Federal Reserve to
raise interest rates, said Minneapolis Fed President Narayana
Kocherlakota and Fed Board Governor Elizabeth Duke, echoed
recent remarks by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. []
Comments by the top Fed officials strengthened expectations
the central bank will stay on course with its $600 billion
debt-buying program and will not look to reverse its super-easy
monetary policy any time soon.
Gold prices have almost doubled since the Fed cut interests
rates to the bones in 2008 to shock the economy back to life
after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
SILVER OUTPERFORMS GOLD AGAIN
Silver <XAG=> climbed 2.5 percent to $41.62, 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, and the
market is unlikely to sustain above $40 an ounce purely based
on its market fundamentals.
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.
"Silver continues to attract a very large speculative bid.
Even though silver is far out-gaining gold, the reasons why
precious metals rally are related to the financial factors that
surround the gold market," said Bill O'Neill, partner of
commodities firm LOGIC Advisors.
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 1 percent
to $1,787.49, while palladium <XPD=> rose 1.2 percent to
$769.47.
Prices at 1:19 p.m. EDT (1719 GMT)
LAST NET PCT YTD
CHG CHG CHG
US gold <GCM1> 1472.10 16.50 1.1% 3.6%
US silver <SIK1> 41.655 1.423 3.5% 34.7%
US platinum <PLN1> 1794.50 17.30 1.0% 0.9%
US palladium <PAM1> 772.90 7.60 1.0% -3.8%
Gold <XAU=> 1471.09 16.48 1.1% 3.6%
Silver <XAG=> 41.62 1.00 2.5% 34.9%
Platinum <XPT=> 1787.49 18.34 1.0% 1.1%
Palladium <XPD=> 769.47 8.84 1.2% -3.8%
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)
