Gold and silver futures fell sharply Thursday, hurt by the credit worries that caused problems for a major French bank and prompted the European Central Bank to attempt a liquidity bailout.
December gold fell $13.50 to finish at $672.80 a troy ounce on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. September silver slid 46.5 cents to $12.705 an ounce.
Meanwhile, October platinum fell $15.80 to $1,275.30 an ounce, while September palladium declined $1.75 to $362.20 an ounce.
Platinum fell after South African labor deals announced Wednesday were signed overnight and any premium built in to cushion for labor stoppages was sold off Thursday
The September copper contract fell 7.80 cents to settle at $3.3610 a pound.
In Nymex energy trading, crude-oil futures closed below $72 a barrel, as anxiety about U.S. subprime-mortgage woes affecting oil demand countered the effect of forecasts for an active hurricane season and rising natural gas prices.
The front-month September light, sweet crude-oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange ended 56 cents lower at $71.59 a barrel. September heating oil rose 2.24 cents to $1.9892 a gallon.
Natural gas for September delivery settled 36.6 cents higher at $6.586 a million British thermal units.
