Gold and Silver Hit New Lows for 2012

On Tuesday, gold (NYSEARCA:GLD) futures for June delivery declined $3.90 to settle at $1,557.10 per ounce, its lowest close of the year. Meanwhile, silver (NYSEARCA:SLV) futures fell 27 cents to close at $28.08.

Both precious metals reversed early gains after party leaders in Greece failed to reach an agreement to form a coalition today. Reuters reports, “After six rounds of fruitless wrangling, party leaders emerged from a final session at the presidential mansion to gloomily declare that deep divisions over a 130-billion-euro foreign bailout package had killed any hope of a coalition deal.” New elections are most likely to take place in mid-June.

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As a result of the turmoil taking place in Europe, the nation’s currency hit its lowest level since January. The euro hit as low as $1.2626 in afternoon trading, while the U.S. dollar extended its winning streak to 12 consecutive days. The dollar index climbed to as high as 81.23 on Tuesday.

In afternoon trading, the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEARCA:GLD) fell .50 percent, while the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEARCA:SLV) dropped 1.4 percent. Gold miners (NYSEARCA:GDX) such as Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY) and Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) both declined about 2 percent. Silver investments such as Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE:SLW) and Endeavour Silver (NYSE:EXK) fell 4.2 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively.

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Disclosure: Long EXK, AG, HL, PHYS