Daily Gold Update

Source: Marketwatch

San Francisco— Gold futures declined 2% on Thursday as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi stopped short of committing to an extended bond buying program as markets had hoped. Gold for February declined $34.90 to $1,709.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Losses intensified as the session drew to a close. U.S. stocks futures and other raw-materials futures took a turn for the worse as Draghi spoke in a press conference earlier Thursday. The ECB cut its key lending rate by a quarter point to 1%, as expected.

Investors had been waiting for any clues about possible expanded bond purchases, akin to the quantitative easing steps taken in the U.S. For gold, the money printing in Europe would play up the metal as a storer of value amid currency debasement. Draghi said the European Union treaty prohibits �monetary financing� in response to a question about the expansion of its bond-buying program, shooting down such hopes. �Essentially you had some expectations that something was going to have to be done because of the rising costs of borrowing� some euro-zone countries have faced, said Carlos Sanchez, with CPM Group in New York. Other metals tracked gold lower, with platinum trading at a steep discount to gold, turning its regular relationship with the yellow metal upside down. See full story.