Gold and silver were sharply lower Tuesday morning as markets focused on news that less than 90% of Greek government bondholders would voluntarily accept the terms of a bond swap. Spot gold was down 1.94% at 10:40 a.m., having traded as high as $1,685.80 and as low as $1,661.90. The London morning reference price was fixed at $1,685.50, according to .
Spot silver was showing a 3.44% loss, bid at $32.83 with an ask price of $32.93. The morning high as of time of writing was $33.39, and the low was $32.45. Tuesday’s reference price was set at $33.22 in the London a.m.
Some 75% to 80% of Greek bondholders are expected to voluntarily accept the terms of an exchange of some 177 billion euros ($234 billion) of long-term Greek bonds, according to , less than the 90% necessary to avoid triggering a collective-action clause that would force all bondholders to swap old for new Greek debt. Enacting the collective-action clause would trigger payments on credit default swap contracts (CDS), the effects of which are largely unknown.
The price of gold bullion dropped to a six-week low of $1,682 an ounce in London morning trading Tuesday because Greek debt worries and China lowering its GDP estimate for 2012 yesterday were slamming markets all over, according to BullionVault’s .
“We remain bearish so long as we remain below…the breached uptrend, currently at $1,768,” Scotia Mocatta technical analysts stated in a research note. “A lot of gold investors are still affected by the large sell-off last week,” commented Phillip Futures Singapore analyst Lynette Tan, adding that gold was “very strongly supported at the 200-day moving average.”
Gold and silver trusts were showing steep drops in U.S. stock exchange trading.
- The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:) was moving down sharply, down around 2.1%.
- The iShares Gold Trust (NYSE:) was down more than 2.1%.
- The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:) was down between 3.4% and 4%.
Gold and silver mining ETFs were down sharply as well.
- The 蜜桃传媒 Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:) was down around 3.3%.
- The 蜜桃传媒 Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:) was showing losses of more than 5%.
- The Global X Silver Miners ETF (NYSE:) was down nearly 4%.
Gold mining shares also were all showing sizable losses.
- Agnico-Eagle Mines (NYSE:) was showing losses of some 2.5%.
- Barrick Gold (NYSE:) was down around 2.95%.
- Eldorado Gold (NYSE: ) was down around 3%.
- Goldcorp (NYSE:) was some 2.75% lower.
- Kinross Gold Corp. USA (NYSE:) was down around 3.45%.
- Newmont Mining (NYSE:) was down around 3.25%.
- NovaGold Resources (AMEX:) was some 4% lower.
- Yamana Gold (USA) (NYSE: ) was down around 3.45%.
Silver mining shares heading lower as well.
- Coeur d’Alene Mines (NYSE:) was dropping sharply, down around 4.6%.
- Hecla Mining (NYSE:) was down some 3.5%.
- Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:) was showing losses of 2.95%.
- Silver Wheaton (NYSE:) was down around 4.1%.
- Silver Standard Resources (NASDAQ:) was showing losses of around 5.45%.
As of this writing, Andrew Burger did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Adrian Ash of BullionVault contributed to this report.
