Gold hits over two-month high on North Korea tensions

By Nithin ThomasPrasad

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Gold lingered near a two-month high hit earlier on Thursday, as rising tensions on the Korean peninsula continued to support safe-haven demand.

North Korea dismissed on Thursday warnings by U.S. President Donald Trump that it would face "fire and fury" if it threatened the United States as a "load of nonsense", and outlined detailed plans for a missile strike near the Pacific territory of Guam.

"(Safe-haven demand) has settled down to a certain extent, but the market is still expecting more news to come," said Brian Lan, managing director at gold dealer GoldSilver Central in Singapore.

"North Korea doesn't seem like they're going to back down and the U.S. has also made a very strong stance this time."

Geopolitical risk can boost demand for assets seen as safe-havens such as gold.

Spot gold crept up 0.1 percent to $1,278.51 per ounce at 0656 GMT. The precious metal climbed 1.3 percent in the previous session, its biggest gain since mid-May, and touched $1,279.64 an ounce, it highest level since June 9.

U.S. gold futures for December delivery rose 0.4 percent to $1,284.40 per ounce.

Asian stocks steadied and U.S. Treasury bond prices fell slightly on Thursday as the risk aversion triggered by tensions between the United States and North Korea began to settle.[MKTS/GLOB]

"Amid all the sabre-rattling, we expect gold prices to continue to move higher and likely cross the $1,300 an ounce mark in relative short order," said INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir.

The market was also waiting for data that would offer clues about the extent to which the strengthening U.S. labour market is spilling over into inflation.

"Investors tend to be more cautious ahead of economic data, especially when the prices are high. They might take profits first and wait to see what's going to happen before they move into the market again," said GoldSilver's Lan.

In other precious metals, silver rose 0.8 percent to $17.04 per ounce after hitting its highest since June 15 earlier in the session.

Platinum fell 0.3 percent to $968.20 per ounce. In the previous session, it marked its highest since April 21 at $980.60.

Palladium prices rose 0.1 percent to $891.75 per ounce.

(Reporting by Nithin Prasad in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Pullin and Joseph Radford)