Bullions settle 0.5% lower

Strength in U.S. equities and economic reports dampen prices

Bullion prices ended lower on Tuesday, 14 January 2014 at Comex. Gold futures settled lower on Tuesday with strength in U.S. equities, a rise in retail sales and comments from Federal Reserve officials pointing to the prospects of further tapering of the central bank's bond-buying program fueling the metal's first loss in four sessions.

Gold for February delivery lost $5.70, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,245.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices tallied a gain of roughly 2% over the past three trading sessions and closed at a four-week high on Monday.

March silver traded on Comex also retreated Tuesday, shedding 10 cents, or 0.5%, to $20.28 an ounce.

Trading activity was uneventful in Asia and Europe on Tuesday, and not much more active in the U.S. session. A heavy slate of U.S. economic data was released Tuesday, including a retail sales report that was a bit better than expected, which limited buying interest in the precious metals.

Today's economic data at Wall Street was limited to a pair of reports. Retail sales increased 0.2% in December after rising a downwardly revised 0.4% (from 0.7%) in November. The consensus expected no change in the December reading. Given the weak jobs report and the corresponding decline in aggregate wages, there was real potential for a dismal retail sales report.

Also, Business inventories increased 0.4% in November, down from an upwardly revised 0.8% (from 0.7%) in October. The consensus expected business inventories to increase 0.3%. Total inventories consist of manufacturers, merchant wholesalers, and retailers. Both manufacturers (0.0%) and merchant wholesaler (0.5%) inventories were announced prior to the total inventory release. The only unknown was retailer inventories, which increased 0.8% in November after increasing 1.1% in October.

In overnight news, European Union industrial production was reported at up 1.8% in November from October and up 3.0% year on year. That's the best reading in over three years. This continues an impressive trend of better economic data coming out of the Euro zone.

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