Gold settles down as rate worries spur global selloff

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange futures ended lower on Tuesday, with the precious metal caught in a downdraft after the Bank of Japan offered no additional stimulus and global investors showed mounting concerns over rising short-term interest rates. The most active gold contract for August delivery fell 9 U.S. dollars, or 0.65 percent, to 1,377 dollars an ounce. Gold is moving down in response to a broader selloff taking hold around the world overnight. The specific impact with gold appears to be rising short-term rates not only in Japan, but elsewhere as well, market analysts say. Although gold typically rallies when investors shun equities and other so-called risky assets, a broader drop in commodity prices helped pull gold down, analysts say. The U.S. Treasury prices fell Tuesday as global government bond markets took a beating, pushing the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note to its highest level since April 2012. U.S. stocks opened the day lower, and then pared initial losses before slipping back to the downside. Asian and European markets tumbled, while emerging-market equities saw heavy losses after the Bank of Japan made no changes to its program of asset purchases and other policy measures. Silver for July delivery fell 27.9 cents, or 1.27 percent, to close at 21.646 dollars per ounce.