Gold Jumps to $1021, Gains in All Currencies as Bonds, Stocks & Commodities Rise Together on Central-Bank Liquidity

Gold leapt to a fresh 18-month high versus the Dollar in Asian trade on Wednesday, adding 7.2% from the start of Sept. as world stock markets reached 12-month highs and commodity prices rose together with government bonds.

Pushing up to $1,021 an ounce in London trade, gold also touched its best level for UK investors since late April at £616 an ounce.

Eurozone investors now Ready to Buy Gold saw the price add 1.6% from Tuesday's low, but it held shy of last week's 5-month high near €700 an ounce as the single currency jumped on the forex market, breaking a fresh 2009-high vs. the Dollar.

"Although the declining Dollar has been one of the catalysts for gold's rise, it is also important to note that gold bull markets are usually characterized by the metal making headway in all currencies," writes South African fund manager Prieur du Plessis in his Investment Postcards today.

"This is now happening with bullion rising in terms of most major (and minor) fiat (paper) currencies."

"Gold Prices tend to show a high correlation with increases in liquidity," noted Merrill Lynch analyst Michael Widmer in a report on Monday, "and central banks around the world have pointed out that they are unlikely to remove monetary stimulus any time soon."

On Tuesday, both US chief central banker Ben Bernanke and his UK counterpart Mervyn King said their economies were "technically" out of recession.

Neither the Fed nor Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates from their current near-zero record lows, however. In parliamentary testimony in London, King said yesterday he may cut the interest rate paid by the Bank of England on commercial-bank deposits below zero, forcing them to seek positive returns by lending more freely to households and business. (Read about Sweden's Sub-Zero Rates here...)