Gold for December delivery rose $27.60 to $1,783.70 an ounce

Gold futures climbed Monday to top $1,780 an ounce as ongoing concerns over the euro-zone debt crisis and news that Italy’s prime minister was under pressure to resign kept traders on edge, boosting the metal’s safe-haven appeal.

“Faced with clear signs the economic system is in a state of grave concern … [gold] has rallied accordingly,” said Ross Norman, chief executive at London-based bullion broker Sharps Pixley, in emailed comments.

Gold for December delivery  rose $27.60, or 1.6%, to $1,783.70 an ounce. Prices finished last week with a 0.5% gain after ending Friday with a $9-an-ounce loss. If they end the session around their current trading levels, prices will log their highest close since Sept. 21.

Earlier Monday, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was reportedly under pressure to resign as government borrowing costs spiked to the highest level since the launch of the euro, punctuating fears the Italian economy could soon be engulfed by the euro zone’s long-running debt crisis.

In Greece on Sunday, Prime Minister George Papandreou agreed to step down, clearing the path for a new government.

European finance ministers were meeting Monday to work out a strategy for hiking the region’s rescue fund.

“Tragically, the European crisis is soluble mathematically and can be resolved financially,” said Norman. “The problem is that it remains bankrupt in the political will and decision-making department.”

This “is having a deeply corrosive effect on confidence in the markets,” he added.

Meanwhile, leaders at the Group of 20 summit in Cannes, France, had floated the idea over the weekend that the Bundesbank’s gold reserves could be used to underpin the European Financial Stability Facility, according to news reports.

But reports said the plan was a quickly rejected by senior German officials, with Economy Minister Philipp Roesler saying Monday that the country’s gold reserves with the central bank “remain untouchable.”

In U.S. economic news, a gauge of employment trends slightly gained in October, following upward revisions to results for prior months, pointing to a “slightly more optimistic outlook,” according to a Monday report from the Conference Board.

On Friday, a much-awaited jobs report in the U.S. was mixed: The economy’s nonfarm payrolls expanded by 80,000 in October, a figure still showing a job market far from recovered and one that fell short of Wall Street expectations.

Other metals traded mostly higher to begin the week, with copper the exception.

December copper   was off less than 3 cents, or 0.9%, to $3.54 a pound after a 4% decline last week.

Silver for December delivery   tacked on 60 cents, or 1.8%, to trade at $34.68 an ounce. Last week, silver declined 3.4%.

Platinum and palladium also climbed, with January platinum   up $27.80, or 1.8%, to $1,658.10 an ounce. December palladium   added $6.40, or 1%, to $661.70 an ounce. – MarketWatch

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