Gold extends record run while silver joins rally to new high

Gold touched a record high on Tuesday, just shy of breaching the $4,500 per ounce threshold, as a weaker dollar and persistent geopolitical uncertainty boosted demand for the safe-haven metal, while silver continued its rally to an all-time peak. Spot gold rose 0.8 percent to $4,482.70 per ounce, as of 1041 GMT, after hitting ‍a record $4,497.55 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures for February delivery rose 1 percent to $4,514.70. "Expectations for a dovish Fed, markets losing confidence in the greenback, geopolitical tensions, central bank buying.... Investors' lust of gold remains massive, due to a mix of all factors above," said Carlo Alberto De Casa, external analyst at banking ‍group Swissquote. The U.S. dollar extended losses to a second day and ‍was on course for its biggest annual fall since 2017. On the geopolitical front, ‌U.S. President Donald Trump last week ordered a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers ‍entering and leaving Venezuela, and said he was not ruling out the possibility of war with the country. Meanwhile, markets are currently pricing ‌in two