Gold near three-month high on latest Russia jitters

Nov 15 (Reuters) – Gold prices edged up near their highest in three months reached earlier on Tuesday on some safe-haven buying after news that two people were killed in eastern Poland near the Ukraine border.

The deaths were in an explosion, firefighters said on Tuesday, with a senior US intelligence official stating Russian missiles had crossed into Poland.

Spot gold rose 0.3% to USD 1,776.64 per ounce by 2:08 p.m. ET (1908 GMT). US gold futures settled little changed at USD 1,776.8.

“It is almost certainly a mistake and would be portrayed as such but Poland is a NATO country, so while gold might not erupt higher it will keep the market nervous for a bit,” said Tai Wong, a senior trader at Heraeus Precious Metals in New York.

Gold prices had turned negative and slipped from their highest since Aug. 15 reached earlier in the session as the dollar index turned higher from its three-month low.

If gold manages to close above the USD 1,780 to USD 1,800 area, then that would be another bullish development, encouraging more bulls to step back in, Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index, said in a note.

Data earlier showed US producer prices increased less than expected in October, further evidence that inflation was starting to subside.

“The cooling inflation data is good news for gold, but it just seems that we have a strong price barrier within the USD 1,800 level,” said Edward Moya, senior analyst with OANDA.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic on Tuesday said he sees little evidence that aggressive monetary policy tightening is slowing inflation, anticipating that more hikes would be needed to get inflation down to the Fed’s 2% target.

Rising interest rates dim non-yielding bullion’s appeal.

Among other precious metals, spot silver slipped 1.8% to USD 21.56 per ounce, platinum fell 0.4% to USD 1,013.25 and palladium rose 2.9% to USD 2,085.52.

(Reporting by Seher Dareen and Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)