Gold News & Info

Source: Market Watch

San Francisco— Gold futures ended lower on Thursday, extending their losing streak to a fourth day and settling at their worst since mid-July. Gold for February delivery declined $9.70, or 0.6%, to finish at $1,577.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The decline was largely driven by investors offsetting losses in other areas of their portfolios and consistent with declines across most risk assets, said Rohit Savant, an analyst with CPM Group in New York. �You have investors in the market sitting on huge profits in gold, so would liquidate gold to offset losses in other stocks,� he said. The precious metal sold off on Wednesday, settling down $76.20 an ounce, or 4.6%, to $1,586.90 an ounce. The four-day red streak has shaved nearly $140 off the price of gold this week.

On Wednesday, losses for gold grew as the euro fell below the $1.30 mark for the first time since January after Italian bond yields spiked to a euro-era record, highlighting the funding difficulties that some European governments are facing. The euro move impacted the gold market, said Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services in Sydney, as it resulted in U.S. dollar strength. �If you look at the U.S. dollar and how it represents a safe-haven play, by default all commodities are under pressure,� said Barratt. �Also gold is one commodity which has held up, so it has had the furthest to fall.�

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