Gold, silver and copper prices all end sharply lower

Silver prices have taken a tumble in the last week and near-term technical damage has occurred in that market, which is adding selling pressure to the gold market.

Spot gold last traded at $1516.50 an ounce, down 1.34% on Wednesday, falling further after setting a new all-time high of $1,577.40 on Monday.

Spot Silver fell another 5.45% after plunging over 10% Monday and Tuesday, and last traded at $39.45 an ounce.

Weaker crude oil prices again Wednesday also prompted selling pressure in the precious metals.

Copper suffered its biggest one-day loss since early March on Wednesday, as concerns about inflation-fighting measures in China and disappointing U.S. data pointed to less demand from the world's top-two consumers.

In London copper shed $226 or 2.4% to finish at $9,124 per tonne (4.15 per pound), its largest daily decline since March 9, when its lost nearly 2.7% of its value.

Wall Street shares closed lower on Wednesday following a worse-than-expected jobs report and service sector figures.

The ADP National Employment Report said 179,000 private sector jobs had been created in April - below the expected 195,000.

Also, the service sector grew at the slowest pace since August, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

The Dow Jones fell 85 points, or 0.7%, to settle at 12,723.

In London falling metals prices pulled shares in miners lower, and this dragged the wider market down, despite better news from the retail sector.

The FTSE 100 closed down 98.81 points, or 1.6%, at 5,984.07. Mining firm Antofagasta fell 9% as its shares were also hit by going ex-dividend.

The French Cac 40 index ended down 1.31% or 53 points at 4,043, whilst the German Dax dropped 1.73% or 129 points, to 7,370.

The Australian benchmark All Ordinaries traded down throughout the day yesterday, falling 1% to 4811, and is now well below the technical barrier of 5000 points the index traded above in late April. The ASX SPI 200 fell 22 points to 4703.

The Australian dollar fell against the greenback, and is currently trading at USD1.07, and also dropped against other global currencies buying GBP0.65, EUR0.72 and JPY86.0.