NEW YORK: Gold fell on Thursday, while silver slid nearly 14 percent, as a stronger dollar and a broad market rout prompted investors to liquidate precious metal holdings.
Spot gold lost 1.8 percent to USD4,872.83 per ounce, as of 01:31 p.m. ET (1831 GMT), after hitting a session-low of USD4,791.69.
US gold futures for April delivery settled 1.2 percent lower at USD4,889.50 per ounce.
Spot silver was down 12.1 percent at USD77.36 an ounce after dropping as low as USD72.21 earlier in the session.
The dollar rose to a two-week high, the S&P 500 slid to near two-week lows and the Nasdaq sank to its lowest level in more than two months. “Some people are facing margin issues and may be covering metal positions because of losses in equities. Fundamentally, nothing has changed,” said RJO Futures senior market strategist Bob Haberkorn.
Precious metals have been volatile in recent sessions, with gold and silver posting their steepest losses in decades last Friday after hitting record highs.
“Moves like that don’t get ‘fixed’ overnight, and volatility remains elevated… Markets typically need time to digest, often leading to further downside,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com.
On the geopolitical side, Russia and Ukraine agreed on a major prisoner swap after US-brokered talks, and President Donald Trump held a call with China’s President Xi Jinping that he described as “very positive” despite tensions over Taiwan, while attention also turned to upcoming US-Iran talks in Oman on Friday.
Meanwhile, JP Morgan said in a note that gold and silver are unlikely to fully decouple, but relatively rich silver valuations leave it vulnerable to outsized corrections in risk-off sessions, even as the bank sees a higher near-term floor around $75–$80 and a recovery toward $90 next year.
Jeweller Pandora is shifting to platinum-plated products to reduce its exposure to wild swings in the silver market.
Meanwhile, spot platinum fell 7.5 percent to USD2,057.86 per ounce, while palladium shed 5.3 percent to USD1,680.50.
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