Gold at record as dollar drops

Gold investors gave thanks on Wednesday for another record high, while the dollar laid an egg, dropping to a fresh 15-month low against a basket of currencies after a batch of US economic data suggested a recovery was gaining traction.

The data helped lift US and European shares while driving government bond markets down. Japanese stocks rose in volatile trade.

The dollar's drop ahead of Thursday's US Thanksgiving Day holiday was not simply due to investors extending risk in reaction to falling weekly US jobless claims as well as a rise in both consumer spending and sales of new homes.

Also playing a role in the greenback's fall was the US Federal Reserve's release of minutes Tuesday that voiced increased confidence in the US economic recovery and Russia's announcement it would diversify some foreign exchange reserves into Canadian dollars.

Investors shrugged off an unexpected decline in durable goods orders, a leading indicator of manufacturing activity.

A published report that India's central bank was interested in buying more gold beyond the 200 tonnes it purchased earlier this month from the International Monetary Fund also gave a strong bid to the precious metal. The IMF had no comment.

"Most commodities are rallying on the back of the weaker dollar, and that move is potentially quite significant," said Standard Chartered analyst Daniel Smith in London.

"Gold has been outperforming on the back of this general rally in commodities, and that tells us that there is more to this than just the dollar story," he said.

Spot gold shot to a record high of USD 1,185.70 before easing to USD 1,184.10. Silver was on track to close at a 16-month high, near USD 18.71 , up 1.2%.

The US dollar index fell 0.7% at 74.547, while the euro rose about 1 percent at USD 1.5079 , a 15-month high. The greenback fell 1% at 87.68 yen, a 10-month low against the Japanese currency.

In addition to saying it has increased confidence in the sustainability of the US economic recovery, the Fed also said the decline in the US dollar has been "orderly."

"When the Fed says the dollar's decline has been 'orderly'  they're implicitly saying this is not something they will do anything about," said Johan Javeus, chief currency strategist at SEB in Stockholm.

Dubai's government helped put the brakes on the dollar's slide after it said it will ask creditors of its two flagship firms for a standstill on debt worth billions of dollars as a first step toward restructuring Dubai World, a conglomerate that spearheaded the emirates' breakneck growth.

"The Dubai news was a surprise and helped halt the rally in the euro against the dollar as traders took some of their risky assets off the table," said Steven Butler, director of FX trading at Scotia Capital in Toronto.

U.S. stocks were modestly higher at 1 pm EST (1800 GMT). The Dow Jones industrial average was up 17.31 points, or 0.17%, at 10,451.02. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 2.80 points, or 0.25%, at 1,108.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 5.07 points, or 0.23%, at 2,174.25.

MSCI's all-country world equities index rose nearly 1%, while European shares added 0.5%. Japan's Nikkei 225 index gained 0.4%. MSCI's emerging markets stock index rose 0.7%.

U.S. light sweet crude oil increased 2% to USD 77.51 per barrel.

Benchmark 10-year US Treasuries rose 5/32 of a point in price, moving the yield to 3.288%, after a strong auction of USD 32 billion of seven-year notes.

Yields on the euro zone's benchmark bonds, which trade inversely to prices, were flat to modestly higher across the curve with the two-year yield barely changed on the day at 1.335% and the 10-year yield up 2 bps at 3.262%.