By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Gold futures on Thursday slipped back after hitting six-week highs the prior session amid talk of investors rotating out of equities and back into precious metals, while keeping careful watch on the movements of the dollar.
Gold for August delivery rose fell $2.90, or 0.3%, to $950.40 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, after closing at $953.30 an ounce on Wednesday. The end marked the highest settlement for a front-month contract since June 11.
"I've been impressed by the gains of the last couple of weeks, which were primarily related to softness in the dollar. My sense was the market was inclined not to be long dollars going into [Federal Reserve Chairman Ben] Bernanke's testimony" to U.S. lawmakers, said Peter Grant, a senior metals analyst USAGOLD - Centennial Precious Metals, Inc.. Read The Fed.
"Investor demand from current levels is likely to remain limited, however, with talk that long standing positions are being rotated out of gold and back in to equities," said analysts at Action Economics.
On Wall Street, U.S. stocks rallied, with the Dow topping the 9,000 level for the first time since January, after a report that showed better-than-expected sales of existing homes in June. Stocks also benefited from another round of mostly better-than-anticipated quarterly earnings reports.
In earnings news among metals miners, Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM 41.99, +0.01, +0.02%) shares fell fractionally. It reported second-net income of $162 million, or 33 cents a share, down from $271 million, or 59 cents, earned during the same period in 2008. Sales by the Denver miner of gold and copper rose to $1.6 billion from $1.5 billion. On an adjusted basis, Newmont's quarterly profit fell to $213 million, or 43 cents a share, from $221 million, or 50 cents a share. The consensus of analysts surveyed by FactSet had been profit of 42 cents a share.
