Gold, silver tilt to losses after rebound

(MarketWatch) — Gold futures tilted lower after swinging between small gains and losses Wednesday, with traders mostly on the sidelines following steep losses for metals in recent days and a rebound the previous session.

Gold for December delivery  lost $15.90, or 1%, to trade at $1,636.30 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold snapped a four-day losing streak on Tuesday, settling 3.6% higher as an end for a broad-based equities selloff stanched money flows out of gold and other commodities.

“After the rally, you are seeing some profit-taking,” said Stephen Platt, an analyst with Archer Financial Services in Chicago. “People are shedding some risk after the volatility they’ve seen.”

December silver tracked gold lower, down 54 cents, or 1.7%, to $30.96 an ounce.

Both gold and silver suffered big losses last week, including the gold contract’s worst day in five years on Friday, as traders sold precious metals to raise cash.

The losses were followed by a rebound Tuesday amid hopes that European leaders were making progress in addressing the euro zone’s sovereign-debt crisis.

“People were tired of the volatility. We all need some time to clean up messes,” Platt said.

Despite the sharp drop for gold in the last week, redemptions from gold exchange-traded funds have been light, said Shamin Mansoor, analyst at Daniel Stewart.

1 2

Tags: Gold analysis, Gold future prices, Gold futures, Gold investment, Gold news, Gold price, Gold price forecast, gold prices, Silver price, silver prices