Gold and Silver Fall

Gold and Silver Fall

Jessica Menton | Apr 24, 2012 | 2min:12sec <p>Gold prices fell to a two-week low today. It was the result of weak crude oil prices and a strong dollar ... plus lots of concern about the euro zone.  That concern had to do with a couple of developments. For one ... there were more economic reports showing that Europe's recession is getting worse and that Germany ... the continent's biggest economy ... is struggling. That hammered stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean ... and investors responded by piling into Treasurys and German bonds. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.88 percent.</p>
<p>For another thing ... the concern about the euro zone had to do with how the first round of the French presidential elections went. Francois Hollande ... the socialist candidate ... got the most votes ... 28.6 percent of the compared with President Nicolas Sarkozy who got 27.1 percent. Hollande has been campaigning on a pledge to cut back on the austerity measures that Sarkozy has initiatied. If he's elected president ... as most experts think he will be ... it could mean that France will go farther into debt and its cost of borrowing could skyrocket ... just like they have been for Spain.</p>
<p>Besides gold ... silver got hammered today. On the Comex the most actively traded contract fell a huge 3.26 percent.</p>
<p>Shares of gold and silver mining companies fell hard as well. Goldcorp was off 3.5 percent, Eldorado Gold dropped 6 percent and New Gold fell 4.6 percent. Silver mining companies got hurt about as badly. Fres-NEE-oh was down 4.7 percent, Silver Wheaton dropped 3.8 percent and Mag Silver gave up 4.7 percent.</p>