BLBG: Gold Falls as Dollar Strengthens; Platinum, Silver Also Decline
By Pham-Duy Nguyen
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Gold fell in New York as the dollar strengthened, reducing the appeal of the precious metal as an alternative investment. Platinum and silver also declined.
The dollar gained today against a weighted basket of six major currencies following two weekly increases. Gold, silver and platinum often move in the opposite direction of the greenback. Gold fell 18 percent last month as the dollar rallied 7.8 percent.
``The dollar has the strength that it does because people are pulling their money home and going to cash,'' said Frank Lesh, a trader at FuturePath Trading LLC in Chicago. ``Gold is just reacting to the dollar. There's a loss in demand for all metals and commodities.''
Gold futures for December delivery fell $10.70, or 1.4 percent, to $731.80 an ounce at 8:59 a.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price gained 1.1 percent last week.
Silver futures for December delivery dropped 17 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $9.32 an ounce.
Platinum futures for January delivery tumbled $27.20, or 3.2 percent, to $817.90 an ounce on the Nymex. Palladium for December delivery fell $1.35, or 0.6 percent, to $215.30 an ounce.
To contact the reporter on this story: Pham-Duy Nguyen in Seattle at pnguyen@bloomberg.net.
