Gold fell more than 2 percent on Thursday, its biggest one-day drop in more than three weeks, on waning investor appetite and some anticipation of interest rate hikes, which would make zero-yield gold less appealing. Spot gold fell as low as $1,310.99 an ounce, the weakest price since October 5. It was down 2.5 percent at $1,313.30 at 2:32 pm EST (1932 GMT). US gold futures for February delivery settled down $14.60 or 1.1 percent at $1,318.40.
Silver fell 2.8 percent to $26.83 an ounce. Investor selling has helped pressure silver prices more than 11 percent so far this month, taking the gold:silver ratio - the number of silver ounces needed to buy an ounce of gold - to its highest since late November this month.
US COMEX gold futures volume totalled about 370,000 lots, about two-thirds higher than its 30-day average, preliminary Reuters data showed. Turnover was in line with recent higher volume this week when prices tumbled. Platinum dropped 1.5 percent to $1,782.40 an ounce, while palladium lost 1 percent to $804.500.