Daily Gold Update

Source: Marketwatch

San Francisco— Gold retreated roughly 2% on Wednesday, hit by concerns about an imminent interest-rate increase in China and a stronger dollar and a slump made worse by profit-taking. Silver slid more than 5%. Gold for February delivery retreated $25.80, or 1.8%, to $1,383.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was gold�s lowest settlement since Nov. 29. Bullion settled at $1,409 an ounce in New York trading on Tuesday, after losing $7.10 over the session and hitting a record in the previous session.

Profit-taking was also at play, analysts said. �It came up so far and so fast you definitely saw some profit-taking� during Wednesday�s session, said Charles Nedoss, a senior market strategist with Olympus Futures in Chicago. The market�s concerns, however, centered around China�s announcement it was moving up the release date of key macroeconomic reports to Saturday from Monday. See full story.