* Gold rises on euro slump, gains for 4th straight month
* U.S. Mint Silver Eagles sales set for record for Nov.
* Euro-priced gold hits record high of 1,067.93 euros/oz
* Coming up: U.S. November nonfarm payrolls due Friday
(Recasts, adds comments, graphic, updates prices to market
close, changes byline/dateline, previously LONDON)
By Frank Tang
NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Gold rallied more than 1
percent on Tuesday as a sharp decline of the euro and signs of
a deepening euro zone's debt crisis prompted investors to buy
gold to hedge against currency and economic uncertainties.
Both gold and silver were higher for a fourth consecutive
month, with gold rising 2 percent and silver climbing more than
13 percent for November.
Gold benefited from investor fears that Ireland's debt
problems, despite the EU approving an emergency aid package,
could spread to other bloc members such as Portugal and Spain,
and borrowing costs of other countries such as Italy, Belgium
and France shot higher. []
"When the euro slipped under $1.30 range, it triggered a
new wave of safe-haven buying," said Frank McGhee, head
precious metals trader of Integrated Brokerage Services. "If
you are holding your assets in euro, you are very afraid."
The euro slid across the board, plunging to 2-1/2 month
lows against the U.S. dollar. The euro was down nearly 7
percent on the month, heading for its worst monthly performance
since May when Greece received a 110 billion-euro bailout.
Spot gold <XAU=> rose 1 percent to $1,382.05 an ounce at
2:35 p.m. EST (1935 GMT), having earlier hit a 2-1/2 week peak
of $1,389.75, the loftiest level since Nov. 12.
U.S. gold futures for February delivery <GCG1> settled up
$18.60 an ounce at $1,386.10. U.S. silver futures were 15
percent higher for November, the best performing commodity in
the Reuters/Jefferies CRB index <.CRB>. (Graphic:
http://link.reuters.com/kys77q )
U.S. gold volume was 30 percent below its one-month
average, as most investors have completed rolling over to
February contracts from December futures. The first notice day
for December was Tuesday.
Silver <XAG=> climbed 2.8 percent to $27.87 an ounce,
helped by speculative buying and strong retail bullion demand.
The U.S. Mint's American Eagle silver coins sales are set
to rise to a record above 4 million ounces in November, as the
European debt crisis and economic uncertainty prompted
individual investors to bet on silver and gold as safe havens.
[]
U.S. silver volume was also back in line with average at
nearly 90,000 lots after posting a sharply higher turnover in
the previous session.
With risk aversion running high, the typical inverse link
to the dollar collapsed, with the 25-day gold/dollar
correlation at its weakest in two months.
"Even the strong U.S. dollar could not push gold in dollar
terms lower," said Eugen Weinberg, an analyst at Commerzbank.
"This suggests that the U.S. dollar is not perceived as the
primary safe haven right now, but rather gold."
Spanish and Italian government bond yields hit euro
lifetime highs on Tuesday after an Irish bailout failed to
quell concerns about peripheral debt. []
IBS' McGhee said that technical buying boosted gold as the
metal was on the verge of breaking out of a bearish potential
head-and-shoulder chart pattern.
EURO-PRICED GOLD RISES TO RECORD
Euro-priced gold <XAUEUR=R> jumped some 2 percent to a
record high at 1,067.93 euros an ounce, posting its biggest
monthly gain since May -- up 9 percent -- when concerns over
Portugal's financial health first battered the markets.
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR
Gold Trust <GLD>, said its holdings rose to 1,286.603 tonnes by
Nov. 29 from 1,285.084 tonnes on Nov. 22. []
In the official sector, the International Monetary Fund has
slowed the rate of selling its gold by 40 percent in October
from the previous month, as interest among central banks to own
the metal as a hedge against economic uncertainty rose.
[]
For platinum group metals, ETF Securities said in a SEC
filing it is launching a new exchange-traded product on the New
York Stock Exchange backed by a basket of silver, platinum and
palladium, the company's sixth U.S. product. []
Palladium <XPD=> posted its fifth straight monthly rise, up
7.9 percent on the month and about 1 percent higher at $695.72
on Tuesday.
Platinum <XPT=> was up 0.9 percent at $1,658.24 an ounce.
On a monthly basis, it bucked the overall positive trend in the
complex, heading for a more than 2 percent drop, its first
monthly decline since August.
Prices at 3:21 p.m. EDT (2121 GMT)
LAST/ NET PCT YTD
CLOSE CHG CHG CHG
US gold <GCG1> 1386.10 18.60 1.4% 26.4%
US silver <SIH1> 28.212 1.019 0.0% 67.5%
US platinum <PLF1> 1666.40 21.80 1.3% 13.3%
US palladium <PAH1> 703.00 8.15 1.2% 71.9%
Gold <XAU=> 1383.85 15.76 1.1% 26.2%
Silver <XAG=> 27.99 0.87 3.2% 66.2%
Platinum <XPT=> 1656.49 13.25 0.8% 13.0%
Palladium <XPD=> 695.47 6.47 0.9% 71.5%
Gold Fix <XAUFIX=> 1383.50 8.50 0.6% 25.3%
Silver Fix <XAGFIX=> 27.13 39.00 1.5% 59.7%
Platinum Fix <XPTFIX=> 1658.00 7.00 0.4% 13.1%
Palladium Fix <XPDFIX=> 702.00 5.00 0.7% 74.6%
(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Fullerton and Jan Harvey in
London; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
