PRECIOUS-Gold jumps to 7-year high on fears virus will hit global growth

(Adds comments, graphic, updates prices)
* Gold, silver on track to post best week in 6 months
* World shares stage broad reatreat
* U.S. 10-year Treasury yields fall to lowest since
September

By K. Sathya Narayanan
Feb 21 (Reuters) - Gold rose 1% on Friday to its highest in
seven years as the spread of the coronavirus intensified
concerns about its impact on economic activity and global
growth, increasing the metal's safe-haven appeal.
Spot gold XAU= rose 1.1% to $1,636.60 per ounce as of 1256
GMT, after hitting its highest since Feb.14, 2013 at $1,636.66
earlier this session. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 jumped 1.2% to
$1,639.60.
Bullion has risen 3.3% so far this week, on track for its
best week since early August.
"There is a rise in risk aversion again due to fears that
the cononavirus will spread further. The virus poses a major
risk for the global economy," Commerzbank analyst Carsten
Fritsch said.
This is likely to force western central banks to maintain
easy monetary policy, he added.
South Korea reported 52 new cases, taking the national total
to 156, while Japan reported the first fatalities from a cruise
ship which accounted for the biggest cluster of infections
outside China.
Meanwhile, China reported an uptick in new cases of
coronavirus, boosted by over 200 people testing positive in two
prisons outside of Hubei province, the epicentre of the
outbreak. The increase in number of new cases hit stock markets around
across the world, putting them on course for their worst week in
four. MKTS/GLOB
Among other safe havens, the U.S. government bonds gained as
the benchmark 10-year Treasury yields fell to its lowest since
September. US/
Further spread of the disease could derail a "highly
fragile" projected recovery in the global economy in 2020, the
International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday. Elsewhere, palladium XPD= rose 0.3 % to $2,698.16 an ounce
and was up about 11% this week. It hit a record high of
$2,841.54 earlier in the week on prolonged supply concerns.
However, net-long positions in palladium 3075651MNET have
fallen to 6,062 contracts in the week to Feb. 11, lowest since
September 2018.
In terms of technicals, the market is overbought, indicating
that "the trend is coming to an end," so, speculators are
reducing their net-long positions on fears of a possible
downward correction, said Peter Fertig, an analyst at
Quantitative Commodity Research.
Silver XAG= was up 1% at $18.53 and was set to register
its strongest week since end-August. Platinum XPT= edged up
0.6% to $983.86 and was on track to post a weekly gain.

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