Gold at Near 4-Month High

Gold jumped to its highest in nearly four months on Wednesday as a report that Chinese officials had recommended slowing or halting US Treasury purchases sparked a broad-based sell-off of the dollar, lifting assets priced in the US currency, Reuters reported. The dollar, already under pressure versus the yen after the Bank of Japan moved to trim its long-dated government bond purchases earlier this week, slid 0.6% versus a currency basket, its biggest one-day drop in a month. Spot gold        was up 0.9% at $1,324.84 an ounce, having earlier touched its highest since Sept. 15 at $1,326.56. US gold futures for February delivery were up $12.30 an ounce at $1,326.00. “Gold is fuelled by the weak dollar after the China news came out,” Commerzbank analyst Daniele Briesemann said. “US Treasury yields are continuing to rise—that should be a headwind for gold, but it seems to be ignored after the news late morning. It all comes down to the weak dollar.”