Gold, Platinum Down, Silver Bucks Trend
Jul 31st, 2008 | By Doug Casey | Category: Financial News, Gold MarketThe precious metals suffered mixed fates on Wednesday as gold and platinum were down sharply on the day, while silver bucked the trend, finishing solidly in the black.
Gold began a slow, but steady descent in the Far East that culminated when it broke below the $900 mark during NYMEX trading. While price recovered somewhat in the afternoon, gold’s closing value of $905.40/oz., a loss of $12.20, represented its lowest value in a month. Overnight, gold rose.
Platinum also experienced large losses on the day. The metal started up in early trading, but fell off badly during the Zurich and NYMEX sessions. While prices rose slightly from their intraday low of $1712.50/oz., platinum still ended down $17, at $1722/oz. Platinum traded up overnight.
Silver was the lone winner among the precious metals as the metal rallied from a sharp drop in the NYMEX session to finish up on the day. Silver closed at $17.44/oz., up $0.13. Overnight, silver rose slightly.
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The drop in gold prices was fueled mainly by the dollar’s gains against the euro and rallying U.S. equities. The dollar reached its highest value against the euro in more than a month Wednesday.
Patrick Chidley of Barnard Jacobs Mellet wrote that gold’s trading on the day was simply “a knee-jerk reaction to the stronger dollar.”
The only truly surprising result of the Wednesday’s trading was that gold bucked its trend of closely following oil prices. Crude rose sharply on the day.
Jon Nadler of Kitco wrote that these conditions “sapped most of the remaining energy from gold and pushed it to near $895 during the morning trade.”
In the future gold will likely “remain vulnerable to further bouts of dollar-related selling,” according to James Moore of TheBullionDesk.com.
Source: Gold, Platinum Down, Silver Bucks Trend
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