SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures stumbled to a two-month low Thursday, squeezed by better-than-expected macroeconomic reports, a stronger dollar and concerns China is again preparing to move to tighten monetary policy to cool down its economy.

Gold for February delivery GCG11 fell $23.70, or 1.7%, to $1,346.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the metal’s lowest close since Nov. 17. Gold has lost 5.3% since the end of 2010. Read “A contrarian take on gold’s big drop.”

Commodity prices start to hurt

Other metals also declined, with silver stumbling more than 4%.

A slew of reports — including jobless claims filed last week, sales of existing homes in December, and a January reading of manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia area — helped the dollar and took away some of investors’ motivation to own gold.

China reported a fourth-quarter gross domestic product beyond expectations, which fueled concerns of impending monetary tightening to cool off its economy.

Gold broke below support around the $1,360 mark, which may also have trigger some technical selling, said Carlos Sanchez, a director at CPM Group in New York.

Still, the metal’s “long-term trend remains intact,” he added.

Gold could be back trading around $1,400 an ounce as early as next week as problems such as Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis, fiscal policies in the U.S., and inflationary pressures in developing countries “have not gone away,” Sanchez said.

March silver SIH11 sank $1.33, or 4.6%, to trade at $27.47 an ounce. That was silver’s lowest close since late November.

Palladium futures fell from Wednesday’s highest in nearly 10 years to lose 0.5%. The March contract PAH11 declined $3.90 to $815.85 an ounce, recovering from much steeper losses earlier.

April platinum PLJ11 was off $19.50, or 1.1%, to $1,818.60 an ounce.

Also on Thursday, a mining giant warned that demand for gold and other metals may be weakening. Fourth-quarter profits at Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. FCX, +2.25% surged 60%, but the company said it expects sales of gold and copper to be lower this year.

Copper for March delivery HGH11 was off 10 cents, or 2.2%, to $4.27 a pound.

Helping set the trading tone, initial claims filed for unemployment benefits dropped 37,000 to a total of 404,000 in the latest week, underpinning the dollar amid optimism about the U.S. economy. Read more about jobless claims.

A stronger currency tends to weigh on dollar-denominated metals. The dollar index DXY, -0.04% , which tracks the U.S. unit against a basket of six other currencies, stood at 79.04, up from 78.70 before the data and from 78.594 late Wednesday. See more on trading in the dollar against the euro and other major currencies.

Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust GLD, -0.15% , the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell to an eight-month low of 1,251.43 metric tons as of Wednesday.

Gold’s decline deepened after reports on industrial activity in the Philadelphia area and on existing-home sales.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s index of manufacturing activity in the region dipped slightly for January, but the decline was a bit less than expected. See more about Philly Fed.

Sales of existing homes jumped 12.3% in December to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 5.28 million, beating estimates of 4.88 million. Read more about the housing market.

Rounding out Thursday’s data, the Conference Board reported a 1% increase in its index of leading economic indicators for December, ahead of the consensus calling for a rise of 0.6%. See more on Conference Board’s expectations for greater economic momentum in 2011.