Gold prices finished sharply lower on Tuesday, marking the sharpest daily decline in more than a year, against a backdrop of rising gold and stabilizing equities. April gold ended off $25.10, or 1.9%, at $1,331.20 an ounce, representing its steepest single-session pullback since a $33.90 drop, or 2.9%, on Dec. 15. 2016, FactSet data show. The tumble for precious metals comes as many Asian investors, big buyers in the commodity, continue to observe Lunar New Year. weighing on buying momentum. The decline also comes against the backdrop of a U.S. dollar, measured by the U.S. ICE Dollar Index , gathered some upward momentum, up 0.6% at 89.69, after registering a weekly decline of 1.4% last week. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index, a proxy for risk appetite against haven assets, was up 0.6% at 7,281, even as a steep decline in shares of retailer Walmart Inc. weighed mightily on the broader market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average , where Walmart is a major component, was off 135 points, or 0.5%, at 25,088, while the S&P 500 index was down 0.1% at 2,729.
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