Platinum Gains for Sixth Day on Demand; Gold Little Changed

By Jae Hur

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Platinum gained for a sixth day on speculation that plans to bolster the U.S. economy will support metal demand. Gold was little changed.

Platinum, used in vehicle pollution-control devices, jumped yesterday above $1,000 an ounce for the first time in 12 weeks. U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has proposed a $775 billion stimulus. The Treasury has pledged $13.4 billion to help General Motors Corp. pay bills and $6 billion for lender GMAC LLC.

“It is foreseeable that platinum will extend its rally if you take a view that the U.S. government will take any measures necessary to ensure the survival of the auto industry,” Toby Hassall, an analyst with Commodity Warrants Australia, said.

Immediate-delivery platinum gained as much as 1.5 percent to $988 an ounce and was at $983.50 at 1:12 p.m. Tokyo time. The metal reached $1,005.50 yesterday, the highest since Oct. 15. Palladium for immediate delivery was down 1.1 percent at $194.75 an ounce.

General Motors said yesterday it has enough government loans to cover its worst-case forecast for U.S. sales and won’t need more money if the economy holds up.

About 60 percent of platinum is used in catalytic converters in cars.

Gold for immediate delivery gained 0.4 percent to $846.14 an ounce at 1:16 p.m. in Tokyo after earlier falling as much as 0.7 percent. Silver for immediate delivery declined 0.4 percent to $10.9975 an ounce after falling 3.8 percent yesterday.

Jobs Report

“Gold will remain under pressure if we see crude prices tumble back toward their December lows,” Hassall said in Sydney. “However expectations of weak numbers in Friday’s U.S. jobs data may keep the dollar soft for the next couple of sessions which would be a supportive factor for gold.”

Crude oil was little changed in New York after dropping the most in seven years yesterday. U.S. nonfarm payrolls probably fell 500,000 in December, bringing last year’s decline to 2.4 million, the most since 1945, according to a Bloomberg survey before Labor Department figures due tomorrow.

The unemployment rate likely jumped to 7 percent, the highest level since 1993.

The euro traded at $1.3608 at 12:17 p.m. in Tokyo from $1.3644 late yesterday in New York. The euro touched $1.3313 on Jan. 6, the lowest level since Dec. 12.

December-delivery gold on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange lost 2.5 percent to 2,533 yen per gram ($850 an ounce) at 1:19 p.m. in Tokyo. December-delivery platinum dropped 2.6 percent to 2,923 yen a gram.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jae Hur in Tokyo at jhur1@bloomberg.net