Gold, silver futures fall in Asian trading Monday

Gold futures declined in electronic trading Monday, part of a broader sell-off across commodity markets, while the U.S. dollar turned higher.

Gold for April delivery slipped $4.00, or 0.2%, to $1,736.40 an ounce on Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange during Asian trading hours.

Optimism about the U.S. economy helped buoy Asian equity markets on Monday, as a surprise jump in jobs reported late Friday, coupled with signs of improving U.S. manufacturing activity, dulled gold’s safe-haven appeal late.

A stronger dollar added further pressure to gold in Asian trading. The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of six currencies, traded at 79.205, from 78.969 in late North American trading on Friday.

A higher greenback can discourage investment in dollar-priced commodities such as gold as it makes them more expensive to holders of other currencies.

Across the wider metals complex, silver for March delivery  eased 13 cents, or 0.4%, to $33.62 an ounce.

Copper’s March contract  lost 2 cents, or 0.5%, to $3.88 per pound.

Platinum for April delivery dropped $10.20, or 0.6%, to $1,621.70 an ounce, while March palladium futures shed $5.85, or 0.8%, to $703.00 an ounce.  - MarketWatch

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Posted by Silver Guru on Feb 6 2012. Filed under Silver prices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry