Gold rises above $1,500/oz on Greece hopes

Gold rose above $1,500 an ounce on, poised to snap a three-session losing streak as hopes that Greece would pass unpopular austerity measures, which boosted the euro and fueled investor risk appetite on commodities across the board.

Gold has recently come under pressure from risk-averse selling and technical weakness. Worries of economic slowdown and fears over a default of debt-laden Greece also dent gold’s inflation hedge appeal. Despite Tuesday’s gain, the metal was down nearly 4 percent in the past four days.

“There are days on which gold benefits because the risk-on trade comes back into vogue and it doesn’t matter what commodity you look at, they’re all going up,” said Natixis commodities strategist Nic Brown.

The Reuters/Jefferies CRB index .CRB rose around 2 percent, with crude oil jumping nearly 3 percent. Wall Street also rallied for a second day as hopes of a solution to the Greek debt problem spurred investor appetite for risky assets. <O/R> .N

Spot gold was up 0.2 percent at $1,499.11 an ounce. U.S. gold futures for August delivery settled up $3.80 an ounce at $1,500.20, after trading between $1,495.50 and $1,507.