Gold Drops 2.4%, Silver Down 4.6% as Stocks Slide, Dollar Jumps on China Bank Tightening
From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...
Gold traded around 1% lower in Asia and London on Wednesday before it fell sharply in New York, ended not far from its late-morning low of $1107.07 per ounce.
The Gold Price in Euros fell less steeply as the single currency also dropped, but still fell from €800 to €789.
US Dollar Gold Prices dropped 2.4% for the day.
Silver followed a similar but amplified pattern, ending near its low of $17.78 an ounce with a loss of 4.6%.
Platinum lost $26 to $1616.50, and copper fell over 9 cents to about $3.35.
Gold Mining and silver equities fell almost 6% by late morning before they rebounded a bit in afternoon trade, but they still ended with about 4% losses.
The Dollar rose fast versus the Euro after weak economic reports in Europe.
Treasuries rose as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell over 1% on worries over the banks and tighter Chinese lending practices.
The state-run China Securities Journal said the China Banking Regulatory Commission has asked several commercial banks to stop issuing new loans for the rest of January.
Oil fell on worries over energy demand.
US Producer Prices showed a 0.2% rise in Dec. from Nov., while Building Permits and New Housing Starts came in below expectations.
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) said it's raising the cost of US government insurance on new home loans, and also raising the minimum down-payments new buyers must make, to try and counter delinquencies.
Thursday at 08:30 EST brings Initial US Jobless Claims for last week, expected at 440,000. At 10:00 comes the Leading Economic Indicators for December, expected at 0.7%, and the Philadelphia Fed survey for January, expected at 18.8.
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