Gold and Silver Edge Lower After Greece Deal

On Tuesday, gold (NYSEARCA:GLD) futures for December delivery dipped $7.30 to settle at $1,742.30 per ounce, while silver (NYSEARCA:SLV) fell 16 cents to close at $33.98.

Both precious metals showed a bit of weakness as the U.S. dollar climbed higher after the Greece deal. Eurozone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund finally reached an agreement to reduce Greece’s debt and clear the way for the release of the next batch of aid loans. The insolvent country will receive a 34.4 billion euro, or $44.7 billion, loan installment in December.

As part of the agreement, the creditor countries decided to cut the interest rates on already extended bilateral loans from the current 150 basis points above financing costs to 50 bps, suspended interest payments for a decade to give the nation additional time to repay, and designed a new bond buyback plan.

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The measures will supposedly help reduce Greece’s debt from 190 percent of gross domestic product in 2014 to the IMF-ordered 124 percent of GDP in 2020. The IMF agreed to raise its previous target of 120 percent.

In afternoon trading, the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEARCA:GLD) edged 0.40 percent lower, while the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEARCA:SLV) declined about 0.30 percent. Gold miners (NYSEARCA:GDX) such as Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) and Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) dropped 1.50 percent and 4.05 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, silver names such as Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW) and Silvercorp Metals (NYSE:SVM) fell 0.85 percent and 3.30 percent, respectively.

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Disclosure: Long EXK, AG, HL, PHYS