Precious Metals Sink, XAU Drops 3.0%
Gold and silver futures remained firmly in negative territory Tuesday afternoon amid broad-based liquidation in the commodities complex and a rally in the U.S. dollar.
COMEX gold for December delivery settled down by $16.90, or 1.0%, at $1,709.40 per ounce – its lowest closing level since September 6th. COMEX silver for December delivery underperformed the yellow metal, dropping $0.46, or 1.4%, to $31.79 per ounce.
Shares of gold and silver mining companies came under heavy selling pressure as well, due to the combination of weakness in precious metals and the broader equity markets. The Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index (XAU) retreated by 3.0% to 182.40 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 243.36 points, or 1.8%, to 13,102.53.
Three of the largest decliners among XAU components were Kinross Gold (KGC), Randgold Resources (GOLD), and Silver Wheaton (SLW). KGC fell by 3.3% to $9.88, GOLD by 4.1% to $117.61, and SLW by 5.6% to $38.24 per share.
(Check out GoldAlert Pro at http://pro.goldalert.com for analysis and rankings of over 90 gold and silver stocks)
Among other precious metals, platinum futures slid by 2.3% to $1,575.60 per ounce and palladium by 4.6% to $593.85 per ounce. As for cyclical commodities, copper futures dropped by 1.5% to $3.57 per pound and crude oil by 2.2% to $86.67 per barrel.
2012-10-23 20:00:12
Source: http://www.goldalert.com/2012/10/precious-metals-sink-xau-drops-3-0/
Source:
