US silver futures sank four percent and gold dropped over one percent on Thursday, and both precious metals finished sharply lower for a second straight day, as jitters set in after sellers returned to the stock markets.
Even though gold is often seen as a safe haven in times of financial instability, analysts expected some investors to unload holdings and opt for liquidity as a wave of risk aversion swept through global markets for a second time this week.
Most-active gold for April delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled down $7.40, or 1.1 percent, at $665.10 an ounce, traded in a wide range of $664.40 to $680.20.
"It's just nervous, jittery type of trading right now. Gold is still pretty steady, although it's certainly run into some resistance between $675 to $680. So I still think you have that hangover from the Chinese news," said Bruce Dunn at Auramet Trading. Dunn said gold would remain under pressure because of the volatile stock markets unless things turn around.
"You're not going to get safe-haven bids. I think what you're going to get is some further selling in the gold," Dunn said. Trading was heavy on Thursday. Estimated volume was 20,000 contracts, and options turnover was 27,000. Turnover in the Chicago Board of Trade's electronically traded 100-oz gold contract was 57,237 contracts as of 3:01 pm EST (2001 GMT).
Neal Ryan, director of economic research at Blanchard and Co, said that the market had already digested the news following Tuesday's sell-off and he expected some investors would redeposit funds into gold for diversification. "There is a lot of turmoil right now...The key that we tell our clients is that you need to be diversified," Ryan said.
US stocks tumbled early as a strengthening yen stirred concern that investors were being forced to unwind carry trades in a repeat of the risk aversion that sparked Tuesday's global market rout. The Dow Jones industrial average and the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index both sank nearly 2 percent in early morning trade. By mid-afternoon, however, both indexes have largely recovered their losses. A technical sell-out was largely to blame for silver's sharp losses on Thursday, analysts said.
COMEX May silver finished down 58.5 cents, 4.1 percent, at 13.650 an ounce, traded in a near $1 range from $13.510 to $14.465, a one-month low. Scott Meyers, senior trading analyst at Pioneer Futures, said that the stock market influenced precious metals on Thursday and panic trading was seen.
"You are seeing a weird kind of nervousness in all markets. When the stocks are up, gold does well. And when the stocks are down, the silver and gold are coming down," Meyers said. Meyers said that sell-stops below around $13.80 to $13.85 made silver futures fall a little more than they should have.
Dan Vaught, futures analyst with A.G. Edwards, also said that the silver drop was largely technical in nature because prices had fallen below support levels. The May contract has rallied more than 17 percent from its 2007 low before this week's sell-out.
Spot gold was quoted at $662.60/3.30, compared with $669.40/0.10 late Wednesday. Gold was fixed in London at $670.40. Spot silver was quoted at $13.560/3.610, sharply lower than $14.165/4.465 late Wednesday. Silver was fixed in London at $14.290. NYMEX April platinum closed down $11.20 at $1,245.20 an ounce. Spot platinum was quoted at $1,236.00/41.00. NYMEX June palladium ended $2.55 lower at $354.05 an ounce. Spot palladium fetched $347.00/52.00.
Comments
Comments are closed.