Investing.com – Gold futures extended losses in Asian trade Thursday, adding to sharp falls the previous session as rising U.S. equities and positive economic data sparked dealer enthusiasm in riskier assets.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for October delivery traded at USD1,746.55 a troy ounce during early Asian trade, down USD16.20 or 0.91%.
Before the start of Wednesday’s session, the U.S. Census Bureau released its July figures for core durable goods orders, which leapt unexpectedly by 4% in the month. Market forecasts were for a 0.4% retreat in goods orders in July.
On Tuesday, gold had plunged 3.65%, its biggest one-day drop since February of 2010, following strong gains by U.S. stocks and the prospects for additional quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve.
Pasting together a last minute surge, Wall Street shares posted their straight winning day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 1.3%, the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.9%, and the S&P 500 rose 1.3%.
Contributing to falling gold prices, the CME Group Inc. announced late Wednesday it would be raising the amount of money needed to trade a gold contract for the second time this month, hiking the fee by 27%.
The CME, operator of the Comex, increased the so-called initial margin to USD7,425 per contract from USD6,075. earlier this month. The higher rates were instituted to thin the market of speculative investors who must pay a higher fee to trade a futures contract.
The new CME price for trading gold contracts now stands at USD9,450 per 100-ounce contract.
Gold futures sank as much as 5% in the two days following the August 11 CME margin hike.
Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for September delivery fell 0.16% to trade at USD39.68 a troy ounce, while copper for September delivery eased 0.02% to trade at USD4.012 a pound.