Gold drops 1.3% as U.S. equities rally; WTI declines 0.4% amid Iran deal talks

March 30, 2015

New York (Mar 30)  Gold futures settled lower for a second session today as strength in the dollar and a rally in equities drew investors away from the precious metals market.

Gold for April delivery shed 1.3 percent to settle at $1,184.80 an ounce on Comex.

U.S. equities today rallied amid dovish comments from China’s central-bank chief. The U.S. dollar also strengthened, luring more investors away from the yellow metal.

Traders will spend much of this holiday-shortened week looking ahead to the March U.S. jobs data due Friday.

In other metals trading, May silver lost 2.3 percent to $16.674 an ounce.

May copper added 0.5 percent to end at $2.782 a pound. April platinum fell 2.3 percent to $1,116.90 an ounce. June palladium settled lower by 1.6 percent at $729 an ounce.

In energy trading, oil futures fell today, pressured by expectations that talks over Iran’s nuclear program could result in an easing of sanctions against the crude exporter.

Prices also headed lower as the turmoil in Yemen looked unlikely to disrupt oil transport in the region.

West Texas Intermediate for delivery in May fell 0.4 percent to close at $48.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. May Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell 12 cents to $56.29 a barrel.

Nymex crude had dipped as low as $47.65 a barrel, but trimmed some losses after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov left the negotiations in Switzerland to return to Moscow, a move that suggested a preliminary deal with Iran isn’t imminent.

Source: ProactiveInvestor

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