Rising expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will decide to curtail its monthly bond-buying — possibly as early as this month — sent gold lower in Tuesday trading.
The Fed will hold its Federal Open ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½s Committee (FOMC) meeting this week. Fed officials have signaled that they could begin tapering stimulus as soon as the economy showed signs of strength. Recent economic reports have shown better-than-expected employment, manufacturing and retail sales data, though consumer confidence remains weak.
Gold futures for February fell 1.1% to $1,230.10 per ounce on Tuesday, according to . Gold traded as high as $1,247.60 and as low as $1,226.50. Bullion closed in London at $1,232, according to .
Silver futures for March delivery sank 1.3%, to $19.84 per ounce. Tuesday’s high for silver was $20.23, while the low was $19.68.
Metal funds moved lower on Tuesday.
- The SPDR Gold Shares () slid 0.9%.
- The iShares Gold Trust () fell 0.8%.
- The iShares Silver Trust () dipped 0.4%.
Mining ETFs faded during the day.
- The ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ Vectors Gold Miners ETF () slipped 0.9%.
- The ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF () dropped 2.2%.
- The Global X Silver Miners ETF () decreased 0.6%.
Gold stocks mostly retreated on Tuesday.
- Agnico-Eagle Mines () sank 1.3%.
- Barrick Gold () rose 0.9%.
- Eldorado Gold () edged up 0.3%.
- Goldcorp () declined 0.6%.
- Kinross Gold () slid 0.7%.
- Newmont Mining () dipped 0.2%.
- NovaGold Resources () tumbled 3.4%.
- Yamana Gold () fell 1.7%.
Silver mining shares mostly declined during the day.
- Coeur d’Alene Mines () slipped 0.9%.
- Hecla Mining () dropped 1.8%.
- Pan American Silver () dipped 0.1%.
- Silver Wheaton () sank 0.8%.
- Silver Standard Resources () climbed 1.2%.
As of this writing, Christopher Freeburn did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Adrian Ash of contributed to this report.
