Gold & Silver close at lowest in a month

SAN FRANCISCO (Sept 12)  Gold futures fell on Thursday, logging a third straight session of declines and settling at their lowest since Aug. 13. Analysts attributed the selloff to expectations that the Federal Reserve will announce a decision to taper its monetary stimulus next week. They also said a price drop below key technical levels exacerbated the selling. December gold /quotes/zigman/662680 GCZ3 -2.54% fell $33.20, or 2.4%, to settle at $1,330.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Overnight, "gold took out very important implied linear support near $1,350 which triggered a large number of trailing stops and sell stops, so the move this morning is mostly technical in my view," said Gene Arensberg, editor of the Got Gold Report.

Silver was even harder hit as spot closed down 4.36% to $22.04, while platinum fell 1.90% to $1,444 - but palladium bucked the trend by rising $1.00 to $692/oz.