Gold drops below 1,600 dollars

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped below 1,600 dollars per ounce on better-than-expected economic data from the U. S. Tuesday.

The most active gold contract for April delivery lost 8.8 dollars, or 0.55 percent, to settle at 1,595.7 dollars per ounce.

This was a third straight day decline for gold, which had not closed below 1,600 dollars since March 15.

Apart from the dampening factor of Cyprus's bailout plan, the better than expected U.S. economic data further also took off the safe-haven appeal of gold.

The U.S. Commerce Department said Tuesday that durable-goods orders climbed 5.7 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted 232.1 billion dollars after a revised 3.8 percent drop in January.

Meanwhile, the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite index released Tuesday inched up 0.1 percent to post a year-on-year growth of 8.1 percent, the strongest since June 2006.

In terms of the impact on gold, the upbeat data outweighed the negative statistics released Tuesday, including a fall in consumer confidence index from 68 in February to 59.7 in March and a drop of 4.6 percent in sales of new U.S. homes in February, the biggest drop in two years.

Market analysts believe that Cyprus bailout deal will exert an influence on gold market for a long time.

CPM Group, a New York-based financial consultancy firm, on Tuesday predicted gold price average would be at 1,565 dollars an ounce in 2013, down 6.2 percent from the spot average of 1,668.75 dollars in 2012.

Silver for May delivery slipped 13.6 cents, or 0.47 percent, to close at 28.679 dollars per ounce. Platinum for July delivery dropped 17.1 dollars, or 1.08 percent, to close at 1,569.8 dollars per ounce.