Daily Gold Update

Source: CBS.Marketwatch

San Francisco— Gold futures closed modestly lower Thursday, breaking a three-session winning streak during which prices rose by more than $7 an ounce.

The European Central Bank's decision early Thursday to leave interest rates unchanged at 2 percent "has failed to have much of an effect on the markets," said James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com, in a note to clients.

Participants in the metals market are continuing to assess the U.S. trade report for November released Wednesday along with the week's other economic data, Moore said.

Friday's producer price index figures could "trigger a little further consolidation in gold, potentially pressuring the metal back to $418 to $420," he said.

But the scale of Wednesday's record-high trade gap underscores the investment case for anticipating fresh weakness in the dollar and while expecting gains in prices for gold and other commodities, he said.

Meanwhile, the dollar was little moved by in-line December retail sales and import price data issued Thursday, maintaining slight gains against the euro and the Japanese yen.

Against this backdrop, gold for February delivery fell $1.50 to close at $425.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The benchmark contract closed at a one-week high on Wednesday.

Other metals futures were mixed, with March silver up 0.2 cent to close at $6.745 an ounce but March copper closing at $1.381 a pound, down 2.3 cents. March palladium shed $3.20 to end the day at $189 an ounce, while April platinum closed up $1 at $861.50 an ounce.

Tracking inventories, copper supplies were unchanged at 48,455 short tons as of late Wednesday, according to Nymex. Silver stocks were down 147,813 troy ounces sat 103.3 million troy ounces, while gold inventories stood at 5.97 million troy ounces, up 102,954 troy ounces from the previous session.