VINACHEM

Gold rose to a two-week high, setfor the longest rally since October, as U.S. jobs data missedestimates and Chinese buyers returned after the Lunar New Yearbreak. Silver headed for the longest winning run since August.

Bullion for immediate delivery rose as much as 0.7 percentto $1,276.03 an ounce, the highest level since Jan. 27 andsurpassing its 100-day moving average of $1,267.43, beforetrading at $1,273.41 at 3:11 p.m. in Singapore. Prices advanced1.8 percent last week as a rout in emerging markets spurredhaven demand. They are up for a fourth day today. Silver added0.7 percent to $20.1633 an ounce, climbing for a seventh day.

Gold beat all other metals on the Standard & Poor’s GSCISpot Index of 24 raw materials this year as a selloff frombullion-backed exchange-traded products lost momentum. Data onU.S. employment growth trailed forecasts last week, sending theBloomberg U.S. Dollar Index lower for a fifth day, as investorsreassessed the Federal Reserve’s plan to cut stimulus. China’sdemand expanded to a record last year, surging 41 percent,according to data from the China Gold Association today.

“Data continues to point to an uneven U.S. recovery, andcoupled with the selloff in emerging markets, gold and silverare benefiting from increased demand for safer assets,” saidZhu Siquan, an analyst at GF Futures Co., a unit of theGuangzhou-based firm that bought Natixis Commodity Markets Ltd.last year. “Whether gold can sustain the recent upward momentumdepends on economic data and how the dollar, equities and othermarkets interpret and react to those numbers.”

China’s Demand

Volumes for the benchmark contract on the Shanghai GoldExchange climbed to a one-month high on Feb. 7, when the marketreopened after a weeklong break. Demand in China, which probablyovertook India as the world’s largest user last year, surged to1,176.4 metric tons in 2013, the China Gold Association said.

Janet Yellen, the new Fed chairman, will speak beforeCongress tomorrow for the first time since being sworn in, afterthe central bank said Jan. 29 it will trim monthly bond buyingby $10 billion. Policy makers decided in December to cutpurchases by the same amount as the economy improved.

Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest bullion-backedETP, expanded 0.5 percent last week for the first back-to-backweekly increase since August. The holdings in the SPDRcontracted 41 percent last year, a record decline.

Bullion for April delivery rose 0.8 percent to $1,273.20 anounce on the Comex in New York, extending its biggest weeklyadvance in a month. A fourth day of gains would be the longestrally since August.

Spot platinum increased 0.4 percent to $1,389.68 an ounce,after posting its first weekly gain in three. Talks to end astrike that has crippled production at the world’s three largestproducers in South Africa will resume tomorrow after protestsleft one person dead. Palladium added 0.9 percent to $717.18 anounce, after halting two weeks of losses.