Gold rose on Tuesday, snapping a two-day losing streak, boosted by simmering inflation pressures in China and sharp gains in industrial commodities amid better-than-expected US retail sales.
Underlying economic uncertainties also supported silver's over 2 percent gains, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that a failure to lift the US debt ceiling risks a potentially disastrous loss of confidence in America's creditworthiness.
Spot gold was up 0.6 percent at $1,524.40 an ounce by 2:55 pm EDT (1855 GMT), after it suffered its biggest one-day loss in a month. US August contract settled up $8.80 at $1,524.40 an ounce, after trading between $1,512.80 and $1,526.70. Volume was half of its 30-day average, consistent with lower recent volume. Spot silver recovered from Monday's 4-percent slide, and was up 2.4 percent at $35.52 an ounce. Among platinum group metals, platinum gained 0.1 percent to $1,792.20 an ounce, and palladium rose 0.4 percent to $793.13 an ounce.