Gold declines, but holds on to $1,230 as US and European markets remain weak

Gold prices started the third quarter with declines after adding nearly 12% in April-June. Despite the recently established trend of moving inversely to equities, the yellow metal declined together with the markets today, retreating to US$1,233/oz.
While gold was on the rise, primarily driven by safe haven demand, the FTSE 100 shed 13.7% during the quarter, the most since Q4 2008.
The Footsie lost 1% after a late selloff on Wall Street, while caused the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ indexes lose about 1% after private employment was reported to have added just 13,000 jobs during the month of June, compared to an addition of 57,000 in May.

Today’s manufacturing data from China also turned out to be disappointing, showing a decline in the PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) from 53.9 in May to 52.1 in June.

Silver and platinum followed, sliding to US$18.40/oz and US$1,511/oz respectively.
Major mining companies were in decline with the sole exception of silver producer Fresnillo (LON:FRES), which advanced 1.4%. Fellow FTSE 100 constituents, gold miner Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) and platinum producer Lonmin (LON:LMI) lost 3.1% and 2.3% respectively.
Specialty chemicals firm Johnson Matthey (LON:JMAT) declined 1.3%.
Aquarius Platinum (LON:AQP) was at the bottom of the pile with a loss of nearly 6%. Silver producer Hochschild Mining (LON:HOC) and gold miner Petropavlovsk (LON:POG) retreated 1.7% and 1.2%.
Turkey and Ethiopia operating gold miner Stratex International (AIM: STI) was the leading performer in the sector with a 6% gain. South American based explorer Mariana Resources (AIM: MARL) moved in the opposite direction, slipping 7%.

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/18347/gold-declines-but-holds-on-to-1230-as-us-and-european-markets-remain-weak-18347.html