Gold rises on safety buying as crude, stocks falls

Gold for December delivery rose $5.50, or 0.8%, to $741.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rallied to $750.80 earlier.

"Gold stayed steady while global stocks and crude oil declined steeply," said Mark O'Byren, executive director at Gold and Silver Investments. "This confirmed its safe-haven status."

Stocks in Europe and Asia tumbled Thursday. U.S. equity markets also opened lower. Crude-oil futures dropped to below $50 a barrel for the first time since May 2005.

Gold hasn't been immune from the global financial crisis. The metal has lost more than 25% from its record high above $1,000 an ounce hit in March. But it's "still doing an admirable job" in terms of wealth preservation, said O'Byrne.

The metal's up about 10% from its low in August 2007, when the financial crisis started. In contrast, the S&P 500 Index has slumped about 40%. Crude oil has lost more than 60% from its peak prices.

In gold spot trading Thursday, the London gold-fixing price -- used as a benchmark for gold for immediate delivery -- stood at $745.20 an ounce Thursday morning, down $16.80 from Wednesday afternoon.

Gold in the SPDR Gold Trust, the largest gold exchange-traded fund, rose for the first time in six days, standing at 752.94 tons Wednesday, according to the latest data from the fund.

James Moore, a precious metals analyst at TheBullionDesk.com, called the return of investment interest into Gold ETFs "encouraging."

The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD: GLD 73.42, +1.16, +1.6%) rose 0.7% to $72.73.

In other metals trading, December copper fell 3.4% to $1.547 a pound, while January platinum slid 3.2% to $797.10 an ounce. December silver gave up 2.2% to $9.11 an ounce, and December palladium slumped 7.6% to $179.10 an ounce.