Gold Falls as Big Investors Shuffle Stakes

NEW YORK (TheStreet ) -- Gold and silver prices fell Tuesday as the market weighed the moves made by big-name investors in metals during the first quarter.

Gold for June delivery lost $10.60 to settle at $1,480 at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price Wednesday has traded as high as $1,497.50 and as low as $1,471.70. The spot gold price was falling $7.30, according to Kitco's gold index.

Silver prices shed 64 cents to close at $33.49 an ounce. The U.S. dollar index reversed directions and was losing 0.16% to $75.47.

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Both silver and gold faced some noise Tuesday as investors digest the latest 13F filings for the first quarter, which don't look good for gold.

George Soros dumped his gold holdings in the first quarter but he did put some money on two large cap miners, Barrick Gold(ABX) and Goldcorp(GG).

Soros' closely watched fund added a handful of shares to the two names, raising its position in Barrick to 8,500 and initiating a new position in Goldcorp of 7,600 shares. Soros reduced his holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust(GLD) to 49,400 and reduced his big share of NovaGold(NG) to 3.5 million shares from 12.91 million. Soros' bet on the small gold miner was a big boost for shares in 2010 which have fallen 35.8% year-to-date.

Soros did initiate a new position in Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold(FCX) of 301,300 shares and added to his position of Great Basin Gold(GBG) bringing his stake to 6 million shares.