Gold rises for fourth day with elevated safe-haven demand

LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters): Spot gold price rose for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday, with safe-haven demand for the precious metal supported by global stocks under pressure after AI bellwether Nvidia's revenue growth forecast failed to excite investors.
Spot gold was up 0.7 per cent at $2,669.30 per ounce by 1040 GMT.
"This is a risk-off move. But the safe-haven pressure is coming more from falling stocks after Nvidia disappointed the Street than from Ukraine's fight against Russia," said Adrian Ash, head of research at online marketplace BullionVault.
Signs of rising geopolitical risks, which usually support demand for gold, increased after Ukraine fired a series of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia on Wednesday, just a day after firing US missiles.
However, the strength of these risks is limited as Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been going on for more than 1,000 days, even though Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a broader range of conventional attacks.
"If gold prices jumped every time Putin rattled his nuclear arsenal at the West, we would have crossed $10,000 (per ounce) long ago, never mind the $3,000 level now forecast for 2025 by some Wall Street pundits," Ash said.
Spot gold prices hit a record high of $2,790.15 per troy ounce on Oct. 31 and then fell to a two-month low of $2,536.71 by mid-November, reacting to the Republicans' clean sweep in the U.S. Nov. 5 election.
On the technical front, the spot gold price broke above the 50-day moving average at $2,660.9 on Thursday and now faces resistance from the 21-day moving average at $2,679.8.
Spot silver gained 0.6 per cent to $31.05 per ounce, platinum fell 0.3 per cent to $958.65 and palladium advanced 0.2 per cent to $1,023.08.