Gold rises 1% on subdued Treasury yields, palladium hits record

GOLD - JAKARTA. Gold jumped 1% on Wednesday propelled by sliding U.S. Treasury yields, while bets for supply shortfalls powered auto-catalyst metal palladium to a record high.

Spot gold had risen 0.8% to $1,791.51 per ounce by 11:10 a.m EDT (1510 GMT), having earlier hit its highest since Feb. 25 at $1,797.41. U.S. gold futures gained 0.7% to $1,790.40.

"Gold's pain over the last couple of months has been the rising Treasury yields and now that has pretty much been alleviated," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.

"The current outlook for the global economy is still mixed... You're going to see a much more cautious approach in the next quarter and that's probably going to see gold start to see some safe haven flows," Moya added.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields languished below 1.6%, reducing the opportunity cost of holding non-interest bearing gold. Bullion got a further lift from a subdued Wall Street and also seemed to largely overlook a firmer U.S. dollar.

Market participants await a European Central Bank meeting on Thursday and a U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting next week. The technical scenario for gold has improved since prices broke above key resistance at $1,750, ActivTrades Chief Analyst Carlo Alberto De Casa said in a note, adding any news regarding more monetary stimulus could be seen as a further positive market driver.

Palladium soared to an all-time high of $2,891.20 per ounce and was last up 4.4% at $2,883.80. Palladium is "benefiting from firming commodity demand readings and expectations for deficits following the Arctic mine disruptions," TD Securities said in a note.

Prices of palladium, used in catalytic converters to clean car exhaust fumes, have risen over 23% since Russia's Nornickel , the world's largest palladium producer, partly suspended operations at two of its mines on Feb. 24. Silver rose 2.1% to $26.42 per ounce, while platinum was 1.4% higher at $1,203.53.