Gold Price Declines in New York as Equities, Raw Materials Fall

By Pham-Duy Nguyen

Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Gold declined for a sixth straight session in New York on speculation that investors will sell the precious metal to cover losses in other markets. Silver fell.

Gold has surpassed equities and other commodities this year as a U.S. housing slump and the credit crisis threaten to push the economy into a recession. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials dropped 21 percent this year before today and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 38 percent while gold was little changed after notching seven straight annual gains.

``The margin clerks are in control and they are selling what they can to raise capital,'' Dennis Gartman, an economist and editor of the Suffolk, Virginia-based Gartman Letter, told clients. ``Gold is doing quite well in terms of other commodities and relative to global equity markets.''


Gold futures for December delivery fell $17, or 2 percent, to $822 an ounce at 9:35 a.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price slipped 50 cents yesterday as the S&P 500 fell 9 percent, the most since Oct. 19, 1987.

Silver futures for December delivery fell 36 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $9.82 an ounce. Before today, the price dropped 32 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Pham-Duy Nguyen in Seattle at pnguyen@bloomberg.net.