Stock Market Watch

Gold Prices Edge Lower, Silver Prices Plunge More Than 1%

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Gold prices edged lower on Thursday, snapping a streak of five successive session gains as tensions over Syria de-escalated while profit booking also weighed. Silver prices, meanwhile, fell sharply in trading on Thursday.

Stronger U.S. dollar, weakness in the physical side demand from Asia and a set of better-than-expected U.S. economic data releases, also kept prices in check.

At last check, gold futures for December delivery edged down 0.44% to $1,412.60 an ounce while spot gold lost 0.44% to $1,411.40 an ounce. In late trading, the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: GLD) was down 0.21% to $136.40.

Silver futures plunged 1.28% to $24.13 an ounce.

Gold futures,  which jumped more than 1.50% on Tuesday amid speculation that the U.S. and its allies could soon take a military action against Syria, lost some of its safe-haven appeal today after President Obama indicated that any possible attack will be only “tailored, limited”.

The U.S. dollar soared after the Commerce Department said that the world’s largest economy expanded at a faster-than-expected rate in the second quarter. The revised numbers showed that the U.S. GDP grew by 2.5% annual rate  while economists expected 2.2% gain.

Separately, the Labor Department said that weekly first-time jobless claims fell by 6,000.

With the U.S. economy picking up the momentum in the second quarter and the labor market showing steady recovery, speculation is rife that the Federal Reserve could start tapering its bond buying program, sooner than later.

The Fed’s extremely accommodating monetary policy helped the metal to extend bull runs in last four years as investors preferred non-interest bearing assets in the backdrop of low interest rates.








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edliston
Post Written By: Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.

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Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing.

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