Big loss for bullions

Strong dollar pushes gold to six month lows

Bullion prices ended substantially lower on Thursday, 19 December 2013 at Comex. Gold futures marked their lowest settlement in more than six months on Thursday as the Federal Reserve's January tapering plans and a rally in the U.S. dollar sank prices below $1,200 an ounce. Strong gains for the dollar on Thursday put pressure on dollar-denominated gold prices.

Gold for February delivery, the most-active contract, tumbled $41.40, or 3.4%, to settle at $1,193.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures prices touched intraday lows under the key $1,200 level for the first time since June and they also suffered their biggest one-day loss since June.

March silver was hit even harder on Thursday, down 87 cents, or 4.4%, to end at $19.19 an ounce.

Today's economic data didn't move the needle much since it was a mixed bag. Initial claims for the week ending December 14 rose by 10,000 to 379,000 (consensus 333,000). That was the highest level in nine months, but once again seasonal adjustment problems were cited by the Department of Labor as impacting the reporting.

Existing home sales declined 4.3% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.90 mln (consensus 5.00 mln). November marked the first time in 29 months that home sales were below year-ago levels. The Philadelphia Fed Index jumped to 7.0 in December (consensus 5.0) from 6.5, reflecting an expansion in manufacturing activity in the Philly Fed region Leading Indicators increased 0.8% in November (consensus 0.6%) following a downwardly revised 0.1% increase (from 0.2%) in October.

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