On Friday, gold (NYSEARCA:GLD) futures for December — the most active contract — fell $16.80 to close at $1,396.10 per ounce, while silver (NYSEARCA:SLV) futures dropped 63 cents to finish at $23.51.
Both precious metals declined as the consumer sentiment reading was better than expected. According to Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s final reading, consumer sentiment improved to 82.1 in August compared to a preliminary reading of 80 earlier in the month. On average, economists expected a final read of 80.5 for August.
The reading on current and future conditions both declined from the previous month. Current economic conditions, which measure whether Americans think it is a good time to make large investments, fell from 98.6 in July to 95.2 in August. Meanwhile, consumer expectations declined to 73.7 from 76.5.
Although gold and silver declined for the third consecutive day, both precious metals posted an impressive month. As the chart shows, silver surged almost 20 percent in August, outperforming everything else in the market. The price of gold jumped 5.7 percent.
In afternoon trading, shares of the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEARCA:GLD) dipped 0.80 percent, while the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEARCA:SLV) declined 1.6 percent. Gold miners (NYSEARCA:GDX) Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) and Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY) fell 3.1 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively. Endeavour Silver (NYSE:EXK) shares dropped 3.4 percent.
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Disclosure: Long EXK, AG, HL, PHYS
Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet