Investors liquidate gold

Gold for August delivery lost $2.40 to $423.50 per troy ounce on the COMEX index on the New York Mercantile Exchange for its lowest close in a week. It had traded between $423.20 and $424.00 earlier in the day. A drop in the euro prompted speculators to liquidate gold.

Three-month copper fell $6 to $3,456 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange, while total stocks in LME warehouses were at 26,850 tonnes, up slightly from record lows.