Commodities : Friday, Oct. 24, 1986 : Gold Futures Drop Again

Gold futures nosedived for the second straight day Friday, stumbling on the stronger American dollar.

The loss on the nearby gold contract came to $7.60 an ounce and extended the two-day decline to nearly $19.

In some other markets, grains and soybeans were higher while livestock and meat futures were mostly lower.

“The strong dollar seems to have frightened a lot of traders,” said Peter Cardillo, commodity futures trading advisor for Josephthal & Co. in New York.

“But gold’s coming down to a level where it should be bought,” he said. “I don’t see the Japanese yen depreciating that much more against the dollar.”

The yen dropped 97 points on Friday and 142 points Thursday at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Steve Chronowitz, an analyst in New York with Smith Barney, said the market “was correcting anyway after the recent $100 surge, and so when the dollar turned stronger, gold really turned down.”

The dollar, he said, put on its strongest performance in about a year.