Gold News & Info

Source: Marketwatch

San Francisco— Gold futures settled lower Thursday, pulling back from an intraday record as a steep selloff in equities sent investors scrambling to meet margin calls. Gold for December delivery declined $7.30, or 0.4%, to $1,659 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The metal had earlier climbed to an intraday record of $1,684.90 an ounce. It traded as low as $1,642.20 an ounce, according to FactSet Research. Silver ended almost 6% lower, its largest one-day drop since mid-May and one that nearly erased all the gains the metal had made in the past two sessions, including a 4.2% advance on Wednesday. Other metals such as copper also had their worst one-day drop since May.

�The selling got so hard in equities and other markets that people are being forced to cover positions and meet margin calls,� said Matt Zeman, head trader and strategist at Kingsview Financial in Chicago. �Even gold is susceptible to that. People are pretty much getting out of everything� except cash and bonds, he added. Gold had gained earlier on concerns about the U.S. economy and Europe�s sovereign-debt crisis, with Italy and Spain as sore points. Japan�s intervention in the currency market to stem the rise of its currency had also sent investors into gold. See full story.