COMEX gold eased Thursday morning as it saw no safe-haven buying after 10 orchestrated bombings rocked rail stations in Madrid and killed more than 173 people.
The Spanish government said Thursday's pre-election attacks were carried out by the Basque separatist group ETA, and not related to the Middle East. It called the bomb attacks the bloodiest "act of terror" in European Union memory. At 10:30 am EST (1530 GMT), April gold was off $1.10 at $399.20 an ounce, trading from $401.00 to $397.30.
Spot gold was quoted at $398.60/9.30, off from Wednesday's close at $399.50/0.30. London bullion dealers fixed the morning reference price at $397.40. Silver, meanwhile, held near Wednesday's highs, with funds continuing to favour white metals as range-bound gold struggled to regain a bullish tone as it sat $30 below the 15-year high set in early January.
May silver was 0.5 cent easier at $7.18 an ounce, trading from $7.245 to $7.065. The market was consolidating the move to $7.28 on Wednesday, the highest for a benchmark futures contract since mid-1988.
Spot silver was near 6-year highs, trading at $7.15/17, up a hair from $7.14/16 late Wednesday. Thursday's fix was at $7.095.
NYMEX April platinum was down $14.60 at $909.00 an ounce, backing off Wednesday's 24-year high. Spot was quoted at $904.00/909.00.
June palladium was down 90 cents at $274.00 an ounce. Spot fetched $270.00/275.00.