Gold Falls $28, Silver Hits New Low for 2012

On Thursday, gold (NYSEARCA:GLD) futures for August delivery dropped $28 to settle at $1,550.40 per ounce, while silver (NYSEARCA:SLV) futures fell 70 cents to close at $26.25. Silver hit as low as $26.07, its lowest level of the year.

Both precious metals struggled today as the markets experienced a broad pullback. In a narrow decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Obama’s highly debated healthcare law on Thursday. By a 5-4 vote, the court said the mandate portion of the law was valid under Congress’ constitutional authority “to lay and collect taxes” to provide for the “general welfare of the United States.”

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The U.S. dollar also rallied as the insolvency situation in European remains unsolved. Although, reports indicate that Germany’s Angela Merkel cancelled a scheduled EU summit conference call tonight, signaling that perhaps European leaders are working on some type of a plan. “Cancel the press conference—That means they’re still working on things,” said Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS Financial Services.

The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEARCA:GLD) closed 1.16 percent lower, while the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEARCA:SLV) finished the day almost 2 percent in the red. Gold miners (NYSEARCA:GDX) such as Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE:ABX) and Yamana Gold Inc. (NYSE:AUY) fell 0.96 percent and 1.45 percent, respectively. Silver names such as Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE:SLW) and Endeavour Silver (NYSE:EXK) dropped 2.60 percent and 4.06 percent, respectively.

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Disclosure: Long EXK, AG, HL, PHYS