The Age – Gold prices climbed on Tuesday, as the yellow metal continued to attract investors hunting a safe haven against the biting economic stormwinds, following a rise of more than 3% last week.

Spot gold was trading at $946.70 per ounce in Asian trade, up from European levels of $US942.70 yesterday. US markets were closed on Monday for the Presidents’ Day holiday.

"With the US on holiday, investors are mostly sidelined,” said Koji Suzuki, a senior analyst at SBI Futures.
 
Traders have pointed to the record high holdings of the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, as evidence of strong investor interest in the precious metal.

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Reuters – Daiwa Securities Group Inc, Japan’s second-largest brokerage, said that it would drop its plans for a large private equity fund after talks with Blackstone fell through.

Daiwa had been in talks with private equity firm Blackstone Group LP to form a fund targeting Asian companies, Daiwa Securities Chief Executive Shigeharu Suzuki told Reuters on Tuesday.

Suzuki said in August that the brokerage was aiming for a 500 billion yen ($5.4 billion) fund to diversify its revenue sources.

"Now we are looking at funds as large as 20 billion yen to 30 billion yen," he said on Tuesday

"It is difficult to collect 500 billion yen in private equity fund in this environment," he added.

Daiwa had been aiming to form a big fund with Blackstone which has expertise in this area, Suzuki said.

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