Gold Ekes Out Late Gain

Updated from 12:26 p.m. EDT

Gold and metals reversed early losses to close higher Wednesday, helped by a weakening dollar and by crude oil prices again topping $70.

A rally on Wall Street also helped improve the mood, lifting metals-mining shares, as investors put interest-rate jitters and concerns about global economic growth behind them, even if just for one day.

Gold for August delivery finished up $10.50, or 1.8%, at $591.00 an ounce. Among other metals, silver for July delivery rose 15 cents, or 1.5%, to $10.42 an ounce and copper for July delivery gained 1.8 cents, or 0.6%, to $3.11 a pound.

"Looks like gold did indeed wish to have a better day than at the start," says Jon Nadler, investment products analyst at bullion dealer Kitco.

With little economic news to provide a direction, metals were mostly drifting lower early on Wednesday, but heightened tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions and a jump in crude oil prices revived demand for the yellow metal, which often serves as a safe-haven asset and a hedge against inflation.

The day after President Bush threatened Iran with UN Security Council action should it refuse a package of incentives to stop its nuclear program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that a review of the package will take until the middle of August.

Concerns over supply disruption from Iran, the world's fourth-largest producer of crude oil, have kept a premium on the price this year. Following Ahmadinejad's comments, crude oil closed up 90 cents to $70.25 a barrel. It also received a bid after a weekly report showed a smaller than expected rise in U.S. gasoline supplies.

For Nadler, gold's performance Wednesday provides hope that the correction that slashed 20% from the metal's May highs might be nearly over. "Should $585 hold for a few sessions, the market might just acquire on a whole new shine [... ] at least until we can go past the [Federal Reserve] meeting next week."