XAU Recoups Half of Intra-Day Loss, but Lags Broader Markets

Gold and silver shares pared their losses for a second consecutive session on Thursday, but still finished considerably in negative territory alongside precious metals.

The Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index (XAU) dropped as much as 3.7% to 149.63 in mid-day trading, but later cut its loss in half to finish down by 1.9% at 152.45.

The rebound came in conjunction with the broader equity markets, which recovered the large majority of their declines this afternoon.  The S&P 500 Index fell 1.4% to 1,313.29 earlier in the day, but bounced back to settle lower by only 0.2% at 1,329.04.

The markets’ resiliency coincided with only a modest retreat in the U.S. Dollar Index, which slipped from 83.07 to near unchanged at 82.83.

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The firmer dollar continued to pressure the metals themselves, as COMEX gold futures settled down by $28.00, or 1.8%, at $1,550.40 per ounce and silver by $0.70, or 2.6%, at $26.25 per ounce.

With today’s sell-off in gold and silver shares, the XAU posted its third straight day of losses and sixth in the past seven.  Among the large-cap gold miners, Goldcorp (GG) tumbled 3.5% to $36.10 while Newmont Mining (NEM) dropped 2.1% to $47.12 per share.

As for silver producers, notable decliners included Pan American Silver (PAAS) and Silver Standard Resources (SSRI) – which slid by 2.8% to $16.47 and by 6.1% to $10.71 per share.