NEW YORK (AFX) - Gold prices fell Monday, pulled down by dropping energy prices as an Atlantic storm no longer appeared to threaten Gulf coast refineries.
December gold fell $6.90 to $623.90 a troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
'As oil came down, you're seeing some corroborative selling,' said Leonard Kaplan, president of Prospector Asset Management. He cited fund selling in light summer-vacation conditions.
September silver dropped 34.5 cents to settle at $12.025 an ounce.
October platinum fell $5.30 to settle at $1,227.70 an ounce.
September palladium fell $4.35 to settle at 341.45 an ounce.
Most-active December copper settled up 1.90 cents at $3.4505 per pound.
Oil prices dropped nearly $2 a barrel Monday as Ernesto was downgraded to a tropical storm and forecast to miss the energy production areas of the Gulf of Mexico.
October crude oil settled down $1.90 a barrel to $70.61 after hitting an intraday low of $70.15.
The September gasoline contract settled down 11.20 cents to $1.7831 a gallon. The September heating oil contract slid 6.39 cents to $1.9659 a gallon.
September natural gas settled down 68.5 cents at $6.472 a million British thermal units.
On the New York Board of Trade, September Arabica coffee futures fell 3 cents to $1.0320 a pound. December lost 3 cents to $1.0725 a pound. Sellers were influenced by rain in Brazil's growing areas Sunday and Monday after prolonged dryness, with more showers likely to arrive this weekend.
Most-active December cocoa settled $51 lower at $1,459 per metric ton -- its weakest price since November 2005 -- while March fell $51 to $1,501 a ton.
Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for October settled down 0.17 cent at 12.13 cents a pound and March lost 0.16 cents to 12.92 cents.
On the Chicago Board of Trade, September corn slipped 0.50 cent to $2.2450 cents per bushel. September soybeans ended 5.25 cents lower at $5.37.75 per bushel. December wheat futures ended 6.25 cents higher at $3.8475 per bushel.
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