Gold News & Info

Source: Marketwatch

San Francisco— Gold futures finished lower Wednesday, pulling back after a nearly $21-an-ounce gain in the previous session, with investors favoring the U.S. dollar over gold after the European Central Bank�s loan offer to euro-area banks. Prices held above $1,600 an ounce, however, as uncertainty around the region�s debt crisis and inflation outlook remained. Gold for delivery in February fell $4, or 0.3%, to settle at $1,613.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have now tallied losses in six out of the last eight trading sessions.

On Wednesday, the ECB loaned $641 billion to 523 euro-area banks in a massive three-year funding operation. The figure came in well above a Reuter�s forecast for $408 billion. �Gold thrives on inflation, central bank and interest rate chaos,� said Richard Hastings, a macro strategist at Global Hunter Securities. �The ECB loan commitments reduced the chaos factor, leaving us with not enough inflation in the USA and a lack of clarity regarding inflation in the ECB.� The move in gold came as the dollar index, which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of six global currencies, traded at 79.954, down from an earlier high of 80.102, but up from 79.826 in North American trade late Tuesday. See full story.