PRECIOUS-Gold slips, silver down nearly 14% on firmer dollar

By Anmol Choubey

Feb 5 (Reuters) - Gold fell on Thursday, while silver slid nearly 14%, as a stronger dollar and a broad market rout prompted investors to liquidate precious metal holdings.

Spot gold XAU= lost 1.8% to $4,872.83 per ounce, as of 01:31 p.m. ET (1831 GMT), after hitting a session-low of $4,791.69.

U.S. gold futures GCcv1 for April delivery settled 1.2% lower at $4,889.50 per ounce.

Spot silver XAG= was down 12.1% at $77.36 an ounce after dropping as low as $72.21 earlier in the session.

The dollar rose to a two-week high, the S&P 500 slid to near two-week lows and the Nasdaq sank to its lowest level in more than two months. MKTS/GLOB USD/

"Some people are facing margin issues and may be covering metal positions because of losses in equities. Fundamentally, nothing has changed," said RJO Futures senior market strategist Bob Haberkorn.

Precious metals have been volatile in recent sessions, with gold and silver posting their steepest losses in decades last Friday after hitting record highs.

"Moves like that don't get 'fixed' overnight, and volatility remains elevated... Markets typically need time to digest, often leading to further downside," said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com.

On the geopolitical side, Russia and Ukraine agreed on a major prisoner swap after U.S.-brokered talks, and President Donald Trump held a call with China's President Xi Jinping that he described as "very positive" despite tensions over Taiwan, while attention also turned to upcoming U.S.-Iran talks in Oman on Friday.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan said in a note that gold and silver are unlikely to fully decouple, but relatively rich silver valuations leave it vulnerable to outsized corrections in risk-off sessions, even as the bank sees a higher near-term floor around $75–$80 and a recovery toward $90 next year.

Jeweller Pandora PNDORA.CO is shifting to platinum-plated products to reduce its exposure to wild swings in the silver market.

Meanwhile, spot platinum XPT= fell 7.5% to $2,057.86 per ounce, while palladium XPD= shed 5.3% to $1,680.50.