Gold futures fell $5.40 to $1,654.60 an ounce, silver futures down 12 cents at $30.43 an ounce

Gold futures edged lower Thursday, pulling back after a two-session gain of nearly 2% as a bigger-than-expected decline in U.S. jobless claims and news that consumer prices were unchanged in December dulled some safe-haven demand for the metal.

“Gold has given up earlier gains and the good U.S. inflation number showing the cost of living was unchanged may have led to selling,” said Mark O’Byrne, executive director at GoldCore.

Gold futures for February delivery  fell $5.40, or 0.3%, to $1,654.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It earlier traded as high as $1,670.60 an ounce.

New applications for U.S. unemployment sank by 50,000 to a seasonally adjusted 352,000 in the week ended Jan. 14, the Labor Department said Thursday. They’re at the lowest since April 2008. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had estimated claims would decline to a seasonally adjusted 375,000.

Separately Thursday, the Labor Department said the consumer price index was flat last month on a seasonally adjusted basis. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a 0.1% increase.

On Wednesday, gold futures prices finished at $1,659.90, the highest settlement for a most-active contract since Dec. 13. They had tallied a two-session gain of 1.8% in Comex trading.

“Euro-zone sovereign debt problems continue to be intractable and there is a real risk that the Greece default is messy,” said O’Byrne. “As long as the attempted solution continues to be various forms of money creation, [quantitative easing] and currency debasement, then gold’s outlook is positive.”

Silver followed gold lower Thursday, but other metals gained ground.

March silver futures  was down 12 cents, or 0.4%, at $30.43 an ounce.

Copper futures for the same month, was 5 cents higher, or 1.3%, at $3.80 a pound.

Platinum for April delivery added $4.40, or 0.3%, to $1,529.70 an ounce. March palladium rose $10.05, or 1.5%, at $678.60 an ounce.  - MarketWatch

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Posted by admin on Jan 19 2012. Filed under Gold price. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry