GOLD MAY RALLY TO $1,500 IN 2011

Gold is up on the New York Spot Market as of 10:53 a.m. EST on bargain hunting and a weakening U.S. dollar. Investors are also accumulating the yellow metal as a safe-haven ahead of Friday’s jobs number. The unemployment report is overshadowing all markets right now including gold. A disappointing number might force investors to sell gold for cash, but might also trigger another wave of safe haven buying. (The Street, 8/31/10)

Stocks are reversing course on the New York Stock Exchange as investors cheered a better-than-expected report on consumer confidence. Stocks opened lower as investors remained wary about the outlook for the U.S. economy. But a report on consumer confidence came in better than expected, and appeared to boost the market's appetite for more risky assets. Still, the market remains vulnerable ahead of the government's all-important monthly jobs report, which comes out on Friday. (CNN Money, 8/31/10)

Gold may rise as high as $1,500 next year, 21 percent more than the $1,240 traded at 1:45 p.m. in London, according to the median in a Bloomberg survey of 29 analysts, traders and investors. Dan Brebner, an analyst at Deutsche Bank in London who is the most accurate forecaster so far this year, says the metal may reach $1,550. People “fear another crisis and so they will diversify into gold,” said Thorsten Proettel, an analyst at Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg in Stuttgart, Germany, who was also the most- accurate forecaster in the first quarter. He expects gold to trade as high as $1,350 next year. Anne-Laure Tremblay, an analyst at BNP Paribas SA in London whose forecast was also the best in the period, is estimating a 2011 high of $1,370. (Businessweek, 8/31/10)