BloombergGold Prices Gain on Report of North Korea Nuclear-Weapon Test
By Pham-Duy Nguyen
Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Gold gained for the third straight session in New York after North Korea said it detonated a nuclear bomb, spurring demand from investors seeking precious metals as a haven.
Gold is up 12 percent this year, partly as tensions over Iran's nuclear research program escalated. North Korea's test breaks an almost decade-long worldwide moratorium on nuclear testing.
``It's adding some support to gold,'' said Frank McGhee, head metals trader at Integrated Brokerage Services Inc. in Chicago. ``The amount of verification and the size of the bomb is still in question. It's not being taken as an earth- shattering event yet.''
Gold futures for December delivery rose $6.20, or 1.1 percent, to $583 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The metal tumbled 4.5 percent last week.
A futures contract is an obligation to buy or sell a commodity at a set price for delivery by a specific date.
To contact the reporter on this story: Pham-Duy Nguyen in Seattle at pnguyen@bloomberg.net .