Gold quotations knocked down

Having climbed to the level of nearly $2,000 an ounce, gold quotations began to slide. The correction on the market has led to active sell-off of gold on the part of investors.

In August, gold gained nearly 16% against the background of negative economic news from the USA. This became the highest price growth since September 1999. The downgrade of the long-term sovereign credit rating of the United States gave another push to the prices.

As it usually happens, some analysts said that gold would soon hit the mark of $2,000 a troy ounce. This week on Tuesday, gold prices reached their historical maximum - $1,911 an ounce.

On Wednesday, however, gold futures dropped below $1,750, which marked the largest reduction of prices since 1980. The prices continued to slide on Thursday - $1,741 an ounce at Comex, which was $15,4 (0,88%) lower than on Wednesday.

"It is worthy of note that gold cost more than platinum at the end of last week and in the second half of this week. This can not be justified, of course. Those who purchased gold for $1,500 an ounce in May and June, received very good profits because the quotations of the precious metal grew by over 25%. Those market members reported profits and then sold their positions, which led to a drop in gold prices," Pavel Emelyantsev, an analyst with Investcafe said.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to make a speech on August 26 about the new financial plans of the United States. The recent macroeconomic data from the US showed that the volumes of orders for long-lived goods in July 2011 increased by 4% ($7.7 billion) to $201.5 billion. The increase marked the most considerable growth for the index over the recent four months. Investors may evince interest in the assets of higher risks, which gold is not referred to.

"The reasons, which were pushing gold prices higher, have been preserved. The debt issue of Western states remains, so one shall expect a more moderate growth. Market members realized that sales can happen on these levels," financial analyst Oleg Dushin said.

Vitaly Salnik.