NEW YORK -- Gold futures closed up $70 an ounce on Wednesday, the biggest daily gain in dollar terms since at least 1980, as news of the U.S. government's takeover of the biggest U.S. insurance company fueled massive safe-haven buying.
Gold for December delivery jumped $70, or 9% to end at 850.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. This would represent gold's biggest one-day jump in dollar terms since at least 1980, the earliest year historical data were available on the Comex. Gold started futures trading in the U.S. in 1974.
After market closed, gold continued to rise more than $20 to $870.90 an ounce in electronic trading.
"Gold is acting like it is supposed to on a flight-to-safety move," said Amaury Conti, an equity trader at investment adviser Austin Calvert-Flavin. "We have a global financial crisis and nobody has a clear answer, therefore stocks, currencies and debt are being questioned and nobody wants to own a 'paper' asset," he said.