Gold Hones in on $1,300 Target as Wall Street Slides

Investing.com – Less than $20 remains between gold bugs and their cherished $1,300 target.

Comex settled up $8.10 at $1,281.10 per troy ounce on Thursday.

It was the eighth positive close in nine days of trading for the yellow metal. In Wednesday’s session, it hit a six-month high of $1,282.30.

While gold’s latest advance was attributed to fresh tremors on Wall Street that erased more than 400 of the previous day’s 1,000-point gain in the , the precious metal had barely conceded ground since the December Federal Reserve rate hike that many analysts believe will be the central bank’s last increase for some time to come.

The dollar, which has largely weakened since the hike, slipped again on Thursday, heading for a second-straight week of losses that bolstered gold as a safe haven of choice for risk-wary investors. The , which measures the greenback against a basket of six currencies, was down 0.6% to 95.988 by 2:34 PM ET (19:34 GMT).

Both stocks and the dollar have fallen in recent days on worries about a global economic slowdown and that the partial U.S. government shutdown could extend longer than thought amid squabbles over President Donald Trump’s request for $5 billion in Congress funding to build a southern border wall.

Investor confidence in bullion was also reflected in a surge in the holdings of SPDR Gold, the largest exchange traded fund, Reuters reported. SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:) holdings rose 2.1% on Wednesday, the best one-day percentage gain since July 2016.

SPDR Gold is at its highest level since August, up about 8% since touching more than 2-1/2-year lows in October.

In other precious metals on COMEX, rose 1.3% to $15.30 a troy ounce.

gained 0.5% to $1,193.30 per ounce, while sister metal slipped 0.5% to $795.20.

In base metals, COMEX lost by 1.2% to trade at $2.67 per pound.

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