Gold slips but silver rises

Iran deal takes the luster away from gold

Bullion metal prices ended mixed on Monday. 25 November 2013 with gold slipping but silver bouncing back. Gold prices closed lower on Monday as a historic agreement between Iran and six world powers to curb the Middle Eastern nation's nuclear program dulled some of the metal's investment appeal. The market was pressured in part by a weekend announcement that Iran has agreed to end its nuclear weapons programs. The key outside markets were also in a bearish daily posture for the precious metals Monday, as the U.S. dollar index was higher and crude oil prices were lower.

Among the most-active contracts, December gold settled at $1,241.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, down $2.90, or 0.2%, while February gold fell by $3, or 0.2%, to $1,241.60 an ounce. Both contracts touched intraday lows under $1,230.

March silver however, bounced back after a 0.4% in the previous session, taking on 2.5 cents, or 0.1% to $19.93 an ounce.

The deal helped ease geopolitical concerns as well as safe-haven demand for the precious metal. Strength in the dollar also contributed pressure to dollar-denominated prices of gold.

The most surprising geopolitical news in months occurred over the weekend when Iran reached agreement with the U.S., Russia and other major nations to see reduced economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for its pledge to stop its nuclear weapons development program. This news was not at all expected and pushed crude oil prices lower and helped most world stock markets rally on Monday. Not only will there now be more oil on the world market place (from Iran) but also the Middle East just saw its geopolitical volatility downtick a notch or two. The U.S. and Iran had not had any diplomatic relations in over 30 years.

Today's economic data at Wall Street was limited to October pending home sales, which ticked down 0.6%. The reading followed last month's revised decrease of 4.6% (from 5.6%), and was worse than the 1.3% increase forecast by the consensus.

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