Gold hit a three-week high on Wednesday, boosted by concern over the debt crisis in eurozone countries such as Greece and as June options expire in the COMEX futures market. Spot gold rose as far as $1,532.10 per troy ounce, its highest since May 4, but was bid at $1,524.79 by 12:50 pm EDT (1750 GMT), down slightly from $1,525.75 late in New York on Tuesday.
The benchmark COMEX June gold futures were up $1.9, or 0.12 percent, at $1,525.2 an ounce. Earlier, the contract rallied to its highest since May 4 at $1,532.50. "Options on June gold are expiring this afternoon and there were some people trying to push it above $1,525. They got it there and then they were going for $1,550, which seems doubtful at this point," said Fred Schoenstein, a trader at Heraeus Precious Metals Management in New York.
Euro-priced gold hit a record 1,088.11 euros an ounce, Reuters data showed. Gold priced in sterling scaled a session peak of 944.82 pounds per ounce, just short of the lifetime high of 944.87 struck on Tuesday. Earlier, escalating worries about Greece's finances and potential contagion effects on other countries including Portugal and Ireland triggered a flurry of investor buying.
The eurozone debt crisis has also weighed on the single currency against the dollar. "It's balancing debt problems against the impact it's having on the euro versus the dollar," said Daniel Major, analyst at RBS. "Underlying physical demand in Asia is relatively resilient."
A yardstick for investor interest is holdings of the largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund (ETF), New York's SPDR Gold Trust, which rose 0.38 percent to above 39 million ounces on Tuesday from Monday. However, holdings of the largest silver-backed ETF, New York's iShares Silver Trust, dropped 0.51 percent to 324.253 million ounces on Tuesday from Monday.
Spot silver hit $37.87 an ounce, its highest since May 11. It was last at $37.76, from $36.53 late on Tuesday. The industrial precious metal is down 35 percent since touching a record peak of $49.51 an ounce on April 28. Spot platinum was bid at $1,775.49 an ounce, up from $1,761.55 on Tuesday, but off an earlier one-week high at $1,782.50. Palladium jumped to $746.22 from $732.53 per ounce. Earlier, palladium hit a three-week high of $749.50.