Dull day for precious metals

Gold extends its losing streak for seventh session

Bullion prices ended lower on Thursday, 06 November 2014 at Comex. Gold extended its losing streak for a seventh session on Thursday, though declines were held in check relative to the prior session's sharp drop. A day earlier, gold was hammered by the soaring dollar and a lack of Asian demand amid signs that the futures markets are ramping up bets on falling prices for metals.

Gold for December delivery slid $3.10 to settle at $1,142.60 an ounce.

December silver dropped another 3 cents to $15.41 an ounce.

Gold prices ended the U.S. day session narrowly mixed Thursday and not far above this week's 4.5-year lows. Traders and investors are awaiting arguably the most important U.S. economic data point of the month: Friday's October employment report from the Labor Department. The key non-farm payrolls number is expected to come in at up around 230,000 in October.

The Nymex crude oil futures market is hovering near a three-year low that was scored this week. The slumping crude oil market is also an anchor on the entire raw commodity sector, including the precious metals.

Thursday's much-anticipated monthly meeting of the European Central Bank saw the ECB make no changes at this meeting. However, as usual, ECB chief Mario Draghi's press conference was closely monitored for clues on future ECB monetary policy action. Draghi's remarks at the conference were deemed dovish by the market place and the Euro currency then sunk to a two-year low, while the U.S. dollar index pushed to a four-year high.

Recent dour economic data coming out of the EU, and Japan's recent monetary stimulus, suggest the ECB will move to enact more monetary stimulus sooner rather than later. Some had reckoned the ECB would make a move as soon as today, but most did not expect the ECB to make a major move at this meeting.

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