* Palladium jumps as much as 4.7%
* Focus turns to ECB policy meeting on Thursday
* Gold hits near two-month peak at $1,797.41/oz
(Recasts, adds comment, updates prices)
By Eileen Soreng
April 21 (Reuters) - Auto-catalyst metal palladium hit a
record high on Wednesday fuelled by supply concerns and wider
gains in precious metals prices, with gold jumping more than 1%.
Palladium XPD= soared to an all-time high of $2,891.20 per
ounce and was up 4.1% at $2,874.29 at 12:44 p.m. EDT (1644 GMT).
"We're looking at pretty decent automotive and industrial
use for this catalyst," said Bart Melek, head of commodity
strategies at TD Securities, adding that with a very tight
market projected, it would be difficult to source the metal.
Prices of palladium, used in catalytic converters to clean
car exhaust fumes, have risen by more than 23% since Russia's
Nornickel GMKN.MM , the world's largest producer, partly
suspended operations at two of its mines on Feb. 24.
There might be technical price corrections but given the
robust fundamentals for palladium, a big adjustment to the
downside is highly unlikely, Melek said.
Elsewhere, spot gold XAU= hit a near two-month high at
$1,797.41 per ounce, helped by subdued U.S. Treasury yields and
a weaker dollar.
Gold was last up 0.8% at $1,791.14. U.S. gold futures GCv1
gained 0.9% to $1,792.30.
"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 US10YT=RR
languished below 1.6%, reducing the opportunity cost of holding
non-interest bearing gold, while the dollar ticked lower.
US/ USD/
Market participants await a European Central Bank meeting on
Thursday and a U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting next week.
Silver XAG= rose 2.2% to $26.43 per ounce, while platinum
XPT= was 2.1% higher at $1,212.50.
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Palladium hits record https://tmsnrt.rs/32A1UhA
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