Gold turned below $900 an ounce Thursday, but managed to attain higher ground, albeit, still coming up short on the day. The yellow metal fell with a sliding U.S. dollar. It was also hurt on news of the G-20 talks to shore up world economies, and their endorsement of the selling of 403 tons of gold by the International Monetary Fund.
Silver and platinum advanced despite gold’s fall. Oil surged to its biggest one-day gain in almost three weeks, and U.S. stocks rallied for the third straight day.
Back to bullion and New York trading futures:
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May silver gained 5 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $13.025 an ounce.
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Gold for April fell $18.70, or 2.0 percent, to $907.40 an ounce.
- April platinum rose $22.40, or 2.0 percent, to $1,158.70 an ounce.
"You’ve got the IMF selling gold — maybe it’s not a lot, but psychologically it would weigh on the market," Leonard Kaplan, the president of Prospector Asset Management, was quoted on Bloomberg.
"If (investors) get the impression that the worst is over, that stock markets are going to stabilize further… that would be a negative factor for gold," Peter Fertig, a consultant at Quantitative Commodity Research in Germany, was quoted on Reuters.
In spot trading, the London afternoon gold-fixing price, which is a benchmark for gold traded directly between big institutions, stood at $897.75 an ounce. The London market for silver and platinum ended at $12.88 and $1,139.00, respectively.
Gold, considered a hedge during times of high inflation and economic uncertainty, tends to follow oil and move opposite to the U.S. dollar. A rising greenback makes dollar-denominated commodities, like bullion, more expensive for holders of other world currencies.
Oil and gasoline prices
While investors apparently disliked the G-20 news and its potential impact on gold, it had the opposite affect for oil. Crude-oil soared $4.25, or 8.8 percent, to $52.64 a barrel.
And for the second straight day in news for consumers, gasoline prices at the pump declined, although not by much. AAA said the average price for unleaded gasoline fell two-tenths of a cent to $2.045 a gallon, which is 3.6 cents higher than a week ago.
U.S. Stocks
U.S. stocks rallied for the third consecutive day — due greatly to the G-20 talks as well, according to many reports. The Dow rallied 216.48 points, or 2.79 percent, to 7,978.08. The S&P climbed 23.30 points, or 2.87 percent, to 834.38. The Nasdaq jumped 51.03 points, or 3.29 percent, to 1,602.63
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