Gold futures turn lower as Bernanke speaks

SAN FRANCISCO (July 17) -- Gold futures turned lower Wednesday as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke participated in a question and answer session before Congress. August gold /quotes/zigman/6585799 GCQ3 -1.23% traded at $1,281.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, down $9, or 0.7%. Prices had been trading near the day's highs shortly before the Q&A session began. The drop appeared to follow comments from Bernanke that the markets are beginning to understand his message, said Adrian Ash, head of research at BullionVault. "The volatility has obviously moderated," said Bernanke. The dollar /quotes/zigman/1652083 DXY +0.26% strengthened further after the comments, adding more pressure to gold.   By noon gold had plunged nearly $18 to $1274, while silver lost more than 3% to $19.38. https://www.gold-eagle.com/