By Moming Zhou, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures rose Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve said it would keep interest rates low for an "extended period."

The Fed's statement and upbeat economic data from Europe pushed down the U.S. dollar, raising gold's appeal as an alternative investment.

December gold futures, the most-active contract, rose $9.30, or 1%, to $961.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The less-active August contract gained $6.80, or 0.7%, to $957.50 an ounce.

Gold was on the rise "as the dollar softens," said James Moore, a precious-metals analyst at TheBullionDesk.com. "Gold should remain supported by the inflationary impact of the Fed's rate decision in addition to the boost to general risk sentiment."

"But we still expect scaled up resistance above $965 to slow the metals advance," he added.

Economic data in Europe Thursday showed an unexpected return to economic growth by Germany and France, helping the euro rise against the dollar.

After four quarters of contraction, Germany's second-quarter gross domestic product grew 0.3% compared with the first quarter of the year. France also ended four quarters of contraction with second-quarter growth of 0.3%. See full story.

In currencies trading, the euro rose 0.6% against the dollar to $1.4291. The dollar index /quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0 (DXY 78.46, -0.33, -0.42%) fell to 78.383 from 78.888 late Wednesday. See Currencies.

Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust /quotes/comstock/13*!gld/quotes/nls/gld (GLD 93.78, +0.83, +0.89%) , the biggest gold exchange-traded fund, stood at 1,065.49 metric tons Wednesday, unchanged from a day ago. Holdings have dropped nearly 70 metric tons since they hit a record above 1,134 metric tons in early June.

Among other metals, September silver rose 31 cents, or 2.1%, to $14.895 an ounce.

October platinum gained $25.50, or 2.1%, to $1,269.90 an ounce, while September palladium rose $3.40, or 1.2%, to $276.75 an ounce.

September copper gained 7.15 cents, or 2.5%, to $2.895 a pound.

Moming Zhou is a MarketWatch reporter based in New York.

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And yes SMH is a equity in GOLD

KJ