Heavy end-of-year selling by hedge funds and signals of potential progress in U.S. budget talks sent gold tumbling in Thursday trading, falling below $1,650 an ounce for the first time in months.
Gold futures for February delivery dropped to $1,648 on Thursday, according to CME Group. Gold traded as high as $1,672.80 and as low as $1,636. Gold bullion closed in London at $1,651, according to BullionVault.
Silver futures for February delivery sank to $29.96 per ounce. Thursday’s high for silver was $31.15, while the low was $29.66.
Gold and silver funds sank in Thursday trading.
- The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:) tumbled 1.2%.
- The iShares Gold Trust (NYSE:) dropped 1.1%.
- The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:) plunged 3.7%.
Gold and silver mining ETFs also moved down during the day.
- The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:) slipped 0.6%.
- The Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:) fell 1.2%.
- The Global X Silver Miners ETF (NYSE:) dipped 0.5%.
Gold mining shares mostly declined, with Goldcorp (NYSE:
) falling the most.
- Agnico-Eagle Mines (NYSE:) slid 1.2%.
- Barrick Gold (NYSE:) edged down 0.5%.
- Eldorado Gold (NYSE:) dipped 0.5%.
- Goldcorp sank 1.6%.
- Kinross Gold (NYSE:) declined 0.5%.
- Newmont Mining (NYSE:) rose 0.8%.
- NovaGold Resources (NYSE:) fell back 0.9%.
- Yamana Gold (NYSE:) retreated 1.9%.
Silver mining shares mostly rose on Thursday.
- Coeur d’Alene Mines (NYSE:) climbed 2.4%.
- Hecla Mining (NYSE:) ticked up 0.4%.
- Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:) gained 0.5%.
- Silver Wheaton (NYSE:) fell 1.1%
- Silver Standard Resources (NASDAQ:) dipped 0.1%.
As of this writing, Christopher Freeburn did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Adrian Ash of contributed to this report.
