Precious Metals Mixed, Gold Shares Outperform

Precious metals initially advanced on Thursday amid weakness in the U.S. dollar, but the sector came well of its intra-day highs this afternoon alongside the broader financial markets.

Nonetheless, gold futures settled up by $5.50, or 0.3%, at $1,770.60 per ounce.  Silver futures fared worse, however, as they slid from as high as $34.38 per ounce to finish down by $0.03, or 0.1%, at $34.08.

In contrast to the metals and the equity market indices, most gold and silver stocks remained firmly in positive territory in afternoon trading.  The Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index (XAU) climbed 0.7% to 188.72, while the S&P 500 Index gave back nearly its entire 1% gain from this morning to trade near 1,435.

One of the best performing XAU components on Thursday was Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM), which jumped as much as $1.46, or 2.8%, to $53.32 per share after UBS upgraded it from Neutral to Buy.

Other notable advancers included Coeur d’Alene Mines (CDE) and Yamana Gold (AUY) – which rose by 2.4% to $29.44 and by 2.2% to $19.18 per share, respectively.

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