MW: Gold futures slide back to lowest since early May
By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures fell Friday, carrying over from two straight declining sessions that have left prices at lows last seen early this month, as investors shed the precious metal along with equities and other assets around the globe amid widespread uncertainty.
Gold for June delivery dropped $6.50, or 0.5%, to $1,182.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, the contract settled down $4.50, or 0.4%, at $1.188.60 an ounce.
Oil futures also fell, with the price of crude dropping under $70 a barrel, continuing a drop that on Thursday had the commodity down for the seventh session in eight amid escalating worries that Europe's debt crisis could dent global growth and curb energy demand.
In foreign-exchange trading, the hard-hit euro (CUR_EURUSD 1.2567, +0.0098, +0.7859%) held its own, while the dollar index (DXY 85.46, -0.11, -0.13%) rose 0.3% to 85.823.
Stock futures also fell, signaling fresh Friday selling on Wall Street after the prior session's dive -- the biggest for the major indexes in more than a year -- left the U.S. stock market officially in a "correction" mode.
Metals traders also keyed on a vote in Germany's lower house of Parliament, which approved its contribution toward the 750 billion-euro rescue package agreed to recently by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
The rescue deal now goes to Germany's upper house, where Chancellor Angela Merkel's government controls a majority, with a decision expected later Friday. Read more about the vote.
