On Friday, gold (NYSEARCA:GLD) futures for December — the most active contract — dropped $36.80 to close at $1,332.50 per ounce, while silver (NYSEARCA:SLV) futures sank $1.37 to finish at $21.93.
Both precious metals have retraced a large portion of the gains seen after the Federal Reserve’s latest policy announcement, but they still managed to close the week modestly higher.
The latest round of selling pressure came as Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard told Bloomberg that the central bank could dial down its bond purchases in October. He also noted that it was a “borderline decision” to keep quantitative easing unchanged at the September policy meeting.
Monthly bond purchases, known as quantitative easing, will continue as normal, with $40 billion in agency mortgage-backed securities and $45 billion in long-term Treasuries. Fourteen of 17 Fed officials don’t expect to see the central bank start to raise interest rates until 2015 or 2016.
Bullard also said to Bloomberg: “Rates went up a lot over the summer; for many on the committee, that was a surprise. We got some weaker data, so that put the committee in a position where we could delay.”
By the end of the trading day Friday, the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEARCA:GLD) declined 2.9 percent, while iShares Silver Trust (NYSEARCA:SLV) dropped 5.4 percent. Gold miners (NYSEARCA:GDX) Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) and Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY) fell 4.3 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively. Shares of Endeavour Silver (NYSE:EXK) plunged 8.4 percent.
Don’t Miss: 10 Signs Americans Are Still Stuck in the Great Recession
Follow Eric on Twitter @Mr_Eric_WSCS
If you would like to receive professional analysis on miners and other precious metal investments, we invite you to try our premium service free for 14 days.
Disclosure: Long EXK, AG, HL, PHYS
Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet