Dec. gold and Sept. silver on Thursday extended Wednesday's sharp sell-offs of -2.13% in gold and -2.62% in silver. Precious metals prices saw weakness on early strength in the dollar index, although the dollar faded during the afternoon. Precious metals prices have seen weakness in August on long liquidation pressure after the sharp rally seen since the beginning of the year due to the pandemic and the Fed's extraordinarily easy monetary policy.
Safe-haven demand and dovish central bank expectations have sparked fund buying of precious metals in recent months. Long gold positions in ETFs on