Gold plummets on Bernanke's remarks

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange plummeted to the lowest level since September 2010 Thursday on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's bond-purchase scale-back remarks. The most active gold contract for August delivery tumbled 87.8 dollars, or 6.39 percent, to settle at 1,286.2 dollars per ounce. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) concluded its two-day policy meeting Wednesday afternoon, and Fed Chairman Bernanke told reporters after the meeting that the central bank could begin to scale back purchases of government bonds as early as this year if warranted by stronger economic data, leaving investors expecting that quantitative easing is coming to an end in the next year or so. Better-than-expected economic data further aggravated gold's tumble. The National Association of Realtors reported Thursday that U.S. existing-home sales rose 4.2 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.18 million, the highest level since November 2009; and the Labor Department said that though the initial jobless claims increased by 18,000 to a seasonally adjusted 354,000 in the week ended June 15, the figure still points to moderate improvement in the labor market in the coming months. With economic fundamentals looking a bit better, market may continue to witness drop of gold, with upward technical resistance between 1,300-1,325 dollars an ounce in the short term, market analysts hold. Silver for July delivery lost 1.8 dollars, or 8.32 percent, to close at 19.823 dollars per ounce. Platinum for July delivery dropped 60.1 dollars, or 4.22 percent, to close at 1,363.8 dollars per ounce.