Gold futures dropped Tuesday, with the COMEX December 2011 contract settling lower by $9.80, or 0.6%, at $1,661.00 per ounce. The yellow metal traded above $1,680 in overnight trading, but turned lower as the U.S. dollar rallied against a basket of foreign currencies later this morning.
With its decline, gold futures are now 13.7% below their $1,923.70 all-time record high, reached on September 6. Due in part to the yellow metal’s recent weakness, a relatively small but growing list of investment banks have recently lowered their 2011 and/or 2012 gold price forecasts.
Last week, UBS cut its 1-month target by 9.0% to $1,775 per ounce and its 3-month by 7.1% to $1,950 per ounce. “Our core bullish view on gold remains unchanged and the light nature of [speculative] positioning is a big positive, but our previous one-and three-month [prices]…are overly ambitious given the recent slowdown in market momentum,” UBS wrote.
This morning, Societe Generale reduced its 2012 estimate to $2,175 from $2,275 per ounce. While the firm noted it remains broadly bullish on the yellow metal, gold’s decline over the past month has somewhat tempered SocGen’s positive outlook.
Klondex Mines Delivers Updated Resource for Fire Creek
* The cut-off grade also resulted in an inferred resource estimate of 458,084 ounces of gold.
* During 2009 and 2010, 14 holes were drilled to in-fill known mineralization, eight holes were drilled to extend the known zones along strike and 13 holes were drilled to test new geophysical targets.
