Late Market Roundup

Gold futures fluctuated today to settle at $1,298.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), after hitting an intraday high of $1,301.30 an ounce. However, Silver kept its 30-year high as its December contract gained 0.2% to $21.45 an ounce. Analysts at Commerzbank said, “While gold is likely to make more attempts at overcoming this mark on a lasting basis, the air appears to get thinner at this level. In our view, gold's latest price rally was more down to dollar weakness than gold strength so the rally has a shaky footing.”

Treasury prices gained for the 1st time in 3 sessions to push the yields down, ahead of the US government auction worth $36 billion in 2-year notes. Yields on 10-year notes dropped about 3.18%, while the yields on 2-year notes fell about 3.60%.

Shares of Alberto Culver (NYSE: ACV) surged about 19% after Unilever (NYSE: UN) (NYSE: UL) planned to buy the remaining shares of ACV for $37.50 per share in cash, representing a 33% premium to the ACV's 12-month, volume-weighted average share price. The boards of directors of both the companies have given their approval to this deal, but it is still subject to approval by majority shareholders of the hair-products company.

Canadian stocks moved up, driven by mining stocks after the slight rise in gold and silver futures. The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained about 0.08%. Canadian gold miner Nuinsco Resources Limited surged about 12.50%. However, shares of Goldcorp Inc and Barrick Gold Corp moved down. The TSX Diversified Metals & Mining Index rose about 0.6%.

Read more from Benzinga's Markets.