By Virginia Harrison , MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Gold futures lost ground in electronic trading on Thursday as the U.S. dollar strengthened and stock markets across Asia headed south on concerns about global growth.
Gold for August delivery GCQ11 -0.19% , the most active contract, fell $2.10, or 0.1%, to $1,541.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange during Asian trading hours.
Silver outpaced gold’s falls, however, with the July contract SIN11 -1.93% plunging 58 cents or 1.6%, to $37.11 an ounce.
Weak U.S. manufacturing and employment data raised questions about future demand for Asian exports, and inflamed concerns about the trajectory of global growth, to push equity markets lower on Thursday.
The dollar improved as fears about the strength of the U.S. recovery lent some support to the greenback as a less-risky currency. The dollar tends to move inversely to dollar-priced commodities such as metals.
The dollar index DXY -0.22% which measures the greenback’s performance against a basket of six rival currencies, climbed to 74.803, from 74.740 in late North American trading on Wednesday. Read more about currencies.
The broader metals complex traded lower during Asian trading hours on Thursday.
Copper for July delivery HGN11 -0.67% declined 2 cents, or 0.4%, to $4.09 a pound.
Platinum for July delivery PLN11 -0.19% extended recent weakness, declining $5.60, or 0.3%, to $1,818.30 an ounce. The falls were sharper for sister-metal palladium, with the most actively traded September contract PAU11 -0.25% shedding $5.70, or 0.7%, to $773.40 an ounce.
