NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Gold is flirting with $1,800 an ounce on the tone of global policy-setters and general market sentiment, said Sharps Pixley in a commodity briefing.

The Comex December futures peaked at $1,798.10 an ounce overnight, their strongest level since Feb. 29. Spot gold has been as high as $1,795.90, its strongest level since last November.

“Gold prices were boosted by various news this week. On Thursday, the ECB announced interest rate would be on hold at 0.75% and the bond-purchase program stood ready to be tapped although takers have not shown up,” said Austin Kiddle, director of Sharps Pixley.

He continued that, “the U.S. Fed also released its September FOMC meeting minutes, revealing that members were generally united for the QE3 program and some were pushing for tying the time period for a zero interest-rate policy to numerical benchmarks on inflation and (the) unemployment rate.”

“The Middle-Eastern tension in Syria and the decision by the Turkish government to launch military actions against Syria have pushed up volatility in the oil prices but helped gold prices,” Kiddle added.

“Gold price sentiment has continued to surge--traders have made the biggest bets on gold rally since seven months ago, the gold-backed ETP holdings have reached another record high at 2,565 metric tons while UBS has recently seen Indian physical gold sales rise the most since April,” Sharps Pixley concluded.