Precious metals steadied on Wednesday after futures of gold, and particularly silver, plunged in the previous session's after-hours trade, although the dollar's strength limited any immediate recovery. The price of spot bullion, which tracks trades in US gold futures, was less than 1 percent. Futures of the precious metal in New York ended 0.8 percent lower, reflecting steep losses during Tuesday's late-session trade after the settlement.
Spot silver was also steady, while US futures showed a 7 percent drop, its biggest loss in two years, as silver market's losses deepened from after-hours trade on Tuesday. Spot gold traded up 0.9 percent at $1,404.85 an ounce at 3:35 pm EDT (2035 GMT).
US gold futures for December delivery settled down $10.80 an ounce at $1,399.30 an ounce on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Estimated COMEX gold volume was near 290,000 lots, about 60 percent higher than the 250-day average, preliminary Reuters data showed, and open interest surged to a record high of 650,764 lots on Tuesday.
Spot silver was at around $26.86, little changed from Tuesday's last trade. COMEX silver for December closed down more than $2 an ounce at $26.865. The world's largest silver-backed exchange traded fund iShares silver ETF lost $546.1 million in market value on Tuesday, Reuters data showed. Activity in the fund was nearly 10 times the 50-day average. In the platinum group metals, palladium gained 1.5 percent to $700.50, after hitting a nine-year high of $740.72 in the previous session. Platinum dropped 1.1 percent to 1,738.99 an ounce, off Tuesday's two-year high of $1,806.5.
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