XAU Recoups Half of Intra-Day Loss, but Lags Broader Markets

Gold and silver shares pared their losses for a second consecutive session on Thursday, but still finished considerably in negative territory alongside precious metals.

The Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index (XAU) dropped as much as 3.7% to 149.63 in mid-day trading, but later cut its loss in half to finish down by 1.9% at 152.45.

The rebound came in conjunction with the broader equity markets, which recovered the large majority of their declines this afternoon.  The S&P 500 Index fell 1.4% to 1,313.29 earlier in the day, but bounced back to settle lower by only 0.2% at 1,329.04.

The markets’ resiliency coincided with only a modest retreat in the U.S. Dollar Index, which slipped from 83.07 to near unchanged at 82.83.

The firmer dollar continued to pressure the metals themselves, as COMEX gold futures settled down by $28.00, or 1.8%, at $1,550.40 per ounce and silver by $0.70, or 2.6%, at $26.25 per ounce.

With today’s sell-off in gold and silver shares, the XAU posted its third straight day of losses and sixth in the past seven.  Among the large-cap gold miners, Goldcorp (GG) tumbled 3.5% to $36.10 while Newmont Mining (NEM) dropped 2.1% to $47.12 per share.

As for silver producers, notable decliners included Pan American Silver (PAAS) and Silver Standard Resources (SSRI) – which slid by 2.8% to $16.47 and by 6.1% to $10.71 per share.