By Claudia Assis and Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures declined Monday, leaving behind early gains on hopes more stimulus measures, with silver holding onto its advance on a mixed day for metals and other commodities.
Gold for December delivery GCZ2 -0.04% retreated 10 cents to $1,672.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The metal gained 3.3% last week as anticipation of central-bank policy easing in China and the U.S. buoyed demand for the metal.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated in a letter released Friday that the U.S. central bank has more tools, if needed, to bolster the economy.
Investors are looking for guidance as to the timing of possible easing measures in a speech by Bernanke slated for a central bankers’s retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyo., on Friday.
Silver for September delivery SIU2 +1.01% kept gains, up 29 cents, or 0.9%, to $30.92 an ounce.
“The impending increase in risk appetite associated with a third round of quantitative easing goes a long way in offsetting weak fundamentals for silver,” BNP Paribas precious-metals strategist Anne-Laure Tremblay wrote in a research note.
Elsewhere in the metals complex, September copper HGU2 -0.40% retreated 2 cents, or 0.4%, to $3.47 a pound, while palladium for September delivery PAU2 -0.43% eased $2.40, or 0.4%, to $649.75 an ounce.
Platinum for October delivery PLV2 -0.46% lost $7.40, or 0.5%, to $1,547.10 an ounce.
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
