Spot gold rose to an over two-month high on Friday while U.S. futures jumped nearly 4
percent, adding to the previous day's late rally as investors scrambled for safety after heavy losses in equity markets.

The month-old financial crisis doled out more punishment, with Japan's Nikkei .N225 tumbling almost 10 percent, its biggest one-day loss since the 1987 stock market crash, on
fears that a global recession was now unavoidable.

The U.S. government is weighing guaranteeing billions of dollars in bank debt and temporarily insuring all U.S. bank deposits to unfreeze bank lending and staunch massive losses in equity markets, The Wall Street Journal said.

Spot gold rose $1.25 or 0.14 percent to $912.75 an ounce from New York's notional 2115 GMT close, its fifth day of gains, at one point hitting $925.05, its highest since July 31.
It is now just 11 percent off its all-time peak of $1,030.80 in March.

Physical selling capped gains and gold could trade in a volatile $850 to $950 range in the next few days, but bullion could also regain $1,000 due to uncertainties in the financial
markets, said Ronald Leung, director of Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong.

"We heard there's some selling from Thailand. Investors buy at the lows and sell at the highs, and of course the dollar is strengthening. We can say it's very choppy," said Leung.

The gold futures contract for December delivery GCZ8 on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, which missed out much of Thursday's late rally as the U.S. Dow
collapsed by 7.3 percent in an avalanche of selling at the close, rallied to a high of $931.3 an ounce before easing back to $917.2 an ounce.

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