NEW YORK, Oct 18: COMEX silver and gold rose on Wednesday morning as US equities sold off amid anthrax fears and comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan stressing near-term economic uncertainty, dealers said.

Silver and gold futures climbed on jittery buying after news that Congress would leave Capitol Hill after the day’s business had ended so that offices could be screened for the deadly bacteria anthrax.

Everyone’s just nervous about the anthrax talk, a gold trader at the New York Mercantile Exchange said.

December gold stood 70 cents higher at $283.60 an ounce at 1054 EDT, moving between $282.40 and $284.40.

Spot gold was at $282.00/2.70, compared with Tuesday’s New York close at $281.35/1.85 and London’s Wednesday afternoon fix at $281.60.

COMEX traders said it piggybacked on gold because of nervousness related to recent bio-terrorism scares.—Reuters