Gold price
Gold Posts Record Gain: Up Over $90 an Ounce
Gold prices exploded Wednesday-posting the biggest one-day gain ever in dollar terms-as fears of more credit market turmoil unnerved investors and triggered a flood of safe-haven buying. Gold for December delivery rose as much as $90.40, or 11.6%, to $870.90 an ounce in after-hours trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after jumping $70 to settle at $850.50 in the regular session. That was the biggest one-day price jump ever; gold's previous single-day record was a $64 gain on Jan. 29, 1980. In percentage terms, it was gold's largest one-day advance since 1999. The huge rally came after the government moved overnight to rescue troubled insurer American International Group Inc. with an $85 million bailout loan. The Federal Reserve stepped in after AIG, teetering on collapse from losses tied to the subprime crisis and the credit crisis, failed to find adequate capital in the private sector.
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Gold 'much more than just jewellery'
The various uses for gold have been highlighted by a publication in India. Gold should be valued for its usefulness in science as well as its scarcity and the fact that it never tarnishes, according to the Deccan Herald. It is often prominent in nanotechnology due to its "magic number" of atoms and has been the subject of several research projects, the news provider noted. Scientists from the University of Cambridge recently utilised gold particles for catalysing styrene, a process that the paper described as "industrially attractive". Although gold is inert and does not react with the majority of chemicals, these researchers found that on a subatomic level it can in fact speed up some processes. Academic journal Nature recently referred to gold as a "precious little catalyst", while explaining how particles of the metal that measure three to five nanometres are "highly active" for several reactions.
Investors unloaded government bonds after the AIG rescue and
in the wake of the Federal Reserve's decision last night to keep interest rates on hold,
spurning market expectations for a cut.
Commodity prices rallied, led by oil.
In Asian trading hours, the November U.S. light crude contract rose $2.70 to $93.85 a barrel.