Gold Futures Decline for Second Day on Stimulus Taper Concern

Jan. 22 – Gold declined for the second straight day in New York amid concern that the Federal Reserve will continue lowering U.S. stimulus, reducing the demand for the metal as a store of value. The Fed trimmed its monthly bond purchases to $75 billion from $85 billion in December, and will probably cut buying by $10 billion at each meeting to end the program this year, according to a Jan. 10 Bloomberg survey. Gold fell 0.8 percent yesterday, the most since Dec. 30.

On the other hand, platinum futures for April delivery climbed 0.6 percent to $1,462.40 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. An ounce of the metal bought as much as 1.18 ounces of gold in London today, the most since June 2011.