* Palladium hits record $1,700.71/oz; on track for 9% gain
in Sept
* Gold eyes first monthly loss in five
* Silver on track for best quarter in 10
(Updates prices, adds graphics)
By Sumita Layek
Sept 30 (Reuters) - Platinum plunged more than 5% and gold
shed 2% on Monday, leading a sharp decline across precious
metals driven by a soaring dollar, with deficit-hit palladium
too giving up some gains from a record rally that saw it breach
$1,700 per ounce.
Silver slid more than 3% to its lowest in more than a month.
Spot palladium XPD= eased 0.6% to $1,670.45 an ounce by
02:23 p.m. EDT (1823 GMT), having earlier touched a record high
of $1,700.71. The metal has risen about 9% this month.
"There is strong fabrication demand but a good part of this
is speculative demand from investors who expect prices to rise
and also people who are getting out of gold, silver and platinum
because those prices are falling, some of them are shifting into
palladium," said Jeffrey Christian, managing partner of CPM
Group.
"There's a lot of concern that there isn't a lot of
palladium around; a big part of that is people who own the metal
don't want to sell at current prices. They want to see how high
the price goes before they keep their profits."
The price of palladium, used mainly in emissions-reducing
catalysts for vehicles, has risen about 33% this year and nearly
9% this quarter, despite a weakening auto sector, due to tight
supply.
Meanwhile, gold XAU= shed 1.7% to $1,471.09 after the
dollar .DXY hit multi-year highs, making the
dollar-denominated metal more expensive for holders of other
currencies. USD/
Earlier, prices fell about 2% to their lowest since Aug. 6
at $1,463.99, with bullion also marking its first monthly
decline in five.
For the quarter, however, bullion has risen more than 4% so
far.
U.S. gold futures for December GCcv1 settled down 2.2%, at
$1,472.90.
"Gold and silver ... continue to decline on a slightly
firmer dollar and a relatively uneventful geopolitical
landscape," INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said in a note.
Also weighing on gold, stocks firmed after Washington's
dismissal of a report from Friday, which had said the U.S.
administration was considering delisting Chinese companies from
U.S. stock exchanges. MKTS/GLOB Investors also kept a close eye on the U.S. Federal
Reserve's monetary policy.
The central bank cut interest rates earlier in September for
the second time this year. "The Fed said they're going to be very cautious about
lowering rates since it's not clear that we really need to,
which was taken as a confirmation that there's a fair bit of
potential growth before getting concerned about recession. So
people backed away from some of the fears that drove them into
gold on a short-term basis." CPM Group's Christian said.
Elsewhere, platinum XPT= dropped 5.6% at $878.86, having
slumping to its lowest since Aug. 28 at $870.5 earlier. Silver
XAG= shed about 2.9% to $17.04 after touching a more than
one-month low of $16.89.
However, both metals are up about 5.4% and 11.4% for the
quarter respectively.
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Monthly price performance of precious metals in 2019 https://tmsnrt.rs/2na6nXa
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