US gold rallies on futures, options buying

雷文

NEW YORK, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Gold futures jumped more than 1 percent on Wednesday, helped by strong buying as options and futures were expiring as well as robust speculative interest as investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's rate decision and comments on inflation.

At 10:29 a.m. EST (1529 GMT), most-active gold for April delivery <GCJ7> on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange was up $7.80, or 1.2 percent, at $658 an ounce, trading between $647.50 and $659.20 an ounce.

The April contract initially fell as the dollar gained after data showed robust U.S. economic growth in the fourth quarter. But gold later reversed course and surged as high as $659.20, near its 5-1/2-month high of $661.20.

George Gero, vice president at RBC Capital Markets Global Futures, said the gold market rallied because of strong buying related to the expiration of options and futures contracts.