U.S. gold ends tad below $900 on safe-haven buying

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. gold futures rose sharply higher for a second straight day on Thursday, ending slightly below $900 an ounce as investors sought a safe haven in bullion and after central banks injected liquidity to calm nerves in global markets.

GOLD

* December gold settled up $46.50, or 5.5 percent, at $897.00 an ounce on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

* Gold reached a high of $926, its highest level since August 1. Its low was $855.90.

* Thursday's gains came on top of previous session's 9 percent surge -- the biggest one-day percentage gain for gold futures since February 2000.

* Gold turned higher after the world's top central banks joined forces to make billions of dollars available to global markets.

* The Central Bank move was a dramatic effort to free up bank-to-bank lending due to the recent financial meltdown on Wall Street.

* Investors have been pouring into commodities with the cash injection by central banks and the rescue of the American International Group - Caprock Risk Management Senior Analyst Chris Jarvis.

* Run-up in gold futures was directly tied to fears about financial companies' viability and that the Federal Reserve's effort to boost liquidity might have been "too much too soon" - RBC Capital Markets Global Futures VP George Gero.

* Increased money supply to bail out troubled institutions seen bullish for gold, which should be trading at $950 or about one-tenth the price of crude oil - Frank Holmes, CEO of U.S. Global Investors with more than $5 billion mutual fund assets.

* Gold futures found support as dollar dropped to a two-week low against the euro and the yen also fell versus dollar. Gold and the dollar often move in opposite directions.

* Gold often rises in times of financial crisis and heightened geopolitical tensions because the metal's intrinsic value is not tied to fiat money.

* COMEX estimated final volume at 295,473 lots, and options turnover at 45,196 lots.

* Spot gold quoted at $896.10/899.10 an ounce at 2:47 a.m., up 3.8 percent from gold's nominal Wednesday close of $862.70.

* The afternoon fix in London XAUFIX= was set at $863.00 an ounce.

SILVER

* December ended up $1.025, or 8.8 percent, at $12.700 an ounce, as silver followed gold's strength.

* Silver surged to a high of $13.065 an ounce in before-hours electronic sessions. Its low was $11.750 an ounce.

* Estimated COMEX final volume at 50,957 lots.

* Spot silver at $12.70/12.79 an ounce, up 5.7 percent from Wednesday's nominal close of $12.00 an ounce.

* The London silver fix at $12.93 an ounce.

PLATINUM

* NYMEX October platinum finished up $51.30, or 4.7 percent, at $1,137.60 an ounce, following Wednesday's solid gains based on the sharply higher precious metals complex.

* Spot platinum was at $1,102.50/1,132.50.

PALLADIUM

* December palladium up $12.35, or 5.4 percent, at $239.45 an ounce.

* Spot palladium at $233.50/241.50 an ounce.

(Reporting by Frank Tang, editing by Matthew Lewis)