Gold News & Info

Source: Bill Musgrave, American Gold Exchange

Austin— Gold slid 0.7% to close above $1,098 as traders took profits from yesterday's 1.6% rally and risk appetite returned to the markets. The metal remains up 3.6% so far this year.

U.S. and European equities bounced back from yesterday's drubbing, with the Dow adding nearly 1% and the FTSE 100 1.8% after ECB President Mario Draghi hinted that additional quantitative easing may come the Eurozone as early as March. Tantamount to printing money, QE boosts stock markets by increasing the amount of cheap liquidity available to corporations and investors.

Stocks were also boosted by rebounding oil prices, which surged by nearly 6% to reclaim briefly $30 per barrel on a short-covering rally.

Traders largely ignored government reports that jobless claims spiked to a seven-month high last week. In addition, manufacturing in the Philadelphia Fed region stayed negative for the fifth straight month in January, pressured by the strong dollar and slower global growth.

The other precious metals were mixed, with silver dropping 0.5% while platinum and palladium added less 0.1% and 2%, respectively.

At the Comex close: February gold slid $8 to $1,098.20; March silver fell more than 6 cents to $14.09; April platinum edged up 30 cents to $819.50; and March palladium gained $10 to $499 an ounce.