Precious Metals Remain Lower, XAU Falls 0.8%

Precious metals remained in negative territory Monday afternoon as the U.S. dollar maintained its gains against a basket of the world’s leading currencies.

COMEX gold futures, per the December contract, settled down by $5.10, or 0.3%, at $1,775.70 per ounce.  The yellow metal had fallen to $1,768.20 early this morning, but pared its losses as traders used the sell-off to re-establish positions.

Silver fared worse than gold today, as the COMEX December contract ended lower by $0.55, or 1.6%, at $34.02 per ounce.  Gold’s sister precious metal tumbled to $33.62 in overnight trading, but also recouped a portion of its decline.

The U.S. Dollar Index (XAY) rose as much as 0.5% to 79.711 this morning before stabilizing near 79.60 later in the day.

Shares of most gold and silver companies remained modestly lower alongside the metals this afternoon, as the Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index (XAU) closed with a loss of 0.8% at 190.09.

Among gold mining stocks, two of the largest decliners on Monday were Eldorado Gold (EGO) and IAMGOLD (IAG) – which dropped by 1.3% to $14.72 per share and by 1.3% to $16.24 per share, respectively.

As for silver stocks, Pan American Silver (PAAS) slid 2.5% to $21.50 per share while Silver Standard Resources (SSRI) retreated by 2.2% to $15.30 per share.

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