New York (Platts)--14Nov2008

A strong recovery in equities markets across the globe, helped trigger a
general commodities rally Friday in the US, despite a steady dollar against
the Euro.

Gold defied the steady dollar, with the active December contract on the
COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rising $35.80 from
Thursday's settlement to reach $740.80/oz in open outcry trading at 10:57 am
EST (15:57 GMT). On the more actively-traded Globex platform, December was
trading at $743.10 at 1:07 pm EST.

Traders said that gold may have benefited from a recommendation by the
China Gold Association that it should increase its gold reserves
substantially, in order for the country to diversify its reserves, because of
the possibility that the recent strength in the US dollar may be short lived.
China is the second largest holder of US Treasuries.

"Whether China follows up on the recommendation is another matter," said
a trader.

"Given the dollar was steady today, such a big jump in gold is a bit of a
surprise," said a second trader. "I think we're seeing some speculation that
the Fed will try to inject more capital into the system to free up credit
markets. This could make gold more attractive, as such moves can be
inflationary and gold is the traditional hedge against inflation," he added.

But some traders said the real reason for the upturn was just in reaction
to the weaker tone that had persisted through much of the week.

"It's easy to pin hopes to something like the prospect of China
increasing its gold reserves, or speculation on a liquidity injection, said a
third trader. "Sometimes these liquidity injections don't have the desired
effect and the banks still don't lend to each other. And we don't know what
China will do."

Silver followed gold up, having fallen below $9/oz on Thursday. The
active December contract recovered by 70.5 cents to $9.505/oz at 12:18 pm EST,
although on Globex, it gave back some of the gains and was trading at
$9.465/oz at 1:19 pm EST.