Gold tumbles to $5,300, silver sinks from record as precious metals rally enters 'dangerous phase'

Gold (GC=F) fell below $5,300 after briefly topping $5,600 per ounce on Thursday while silver also slid as a blistering rally in precious metals appeared to come to a halt. The declines came alongside a selloff in the stock market, with the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dropping more than 2% amid a plunge in Microsoft shares (MSFT). The tech giant's quarterly earnings report spooked investors given higher-than-anticipated capital spending and a slowdown in quarterly cloud sales growth. A rapid rally in prec ...