Gold prices inched up Thursday in electronic trade, as unrest in Egypt and political troubles in Portugal helped the precious metal benefit from its safe-haven status. Gold for August delivery rose $2.40, or 0.2%, to $1,254.30 an ounce. The move added to Wednesday's gain of $8.50, or 0.7%, on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Investors found safety in gold on Wednesday as Egypt's military pressured President Mohammed Morsi to step down, and later led his ouster from office. A worse-than-expected reading on June activity in the U.S. services sector, and a surge in borrowing costs for Portugal after the resignation of two government officials also provided upside support for gold, whose prices have been battered this year. "The jump in Portuguese yields is reminiscent of previous euro-zone crises, which proved to be very positive for gold," HSBC analyst James Steel wrote in a report Wednesday. The yield on Portugal's 10-year government bond jumped to more than 8% for the first time since last November on Wednesday, according to Tradeweb, following the resignations in Portugal of Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar and Foreign Affairs Minister Paulo Portas. The yield was around 7.2% on Thursday. "Recurrent euro-zone crises from 2009-2011 had a markedly bullish impact on gold as events encouraged capital flows into U.S. Treasuries and lowered U.S. yields," said Steel. "This helps explain why gold rallied despite [U.S. dollar] strength." Gains in other euro-zone bond yields indicated worries about Portugal were growing. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi at a press conference Thursday may answer questions about Portugal as he addresses the ECB's view on monetary policy. Gold prices last week wrapped up the second quarter by sliding 23%, hit in part by fears that strengthening in the U.S. economy will result in the U.S. Federal Reserve paring the flow of monetary stimulus this year. U.S. markets will be closed Thursday for Independence Day, and regular trading for Comex will resume Friday. With the Fed monitoring labor-market conditions as part of its assessment of economic conditions, investors will key in on Friday's release of the U.S. jobs report for June. The economy may have created 155,000 net jobs last month, less than May's gain of 175,000, according to a MarketWatch survey of analysts. In other electronic-trading action Thursday, September silver shed 5 cents, or 0.3%, to $19.64 an ounce. September copper lost 2 cents, or 7%, to $3.15 a pound. Platinum for October delivery , meanwhile, rose $9.10, or 0.7%, to $1,355.90 an ounce and September palladium fell $1.50, or 0.2%, to trade at $684.20 an ounce Source : Marketwatch
