Gold prices dipped in after-market electronic trading Thursday, as trader attention turned to U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech, due around 7 p.m. EDT, after the much-awaited speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke failed to deliver firm promises of further monetary easing.

Gold for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, settled $39.90, or 2.2%, at $1,857.50 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The thinly traded contract slumped to $1,850.10 a troy ounce in electronic trading after Bernanke’s speech, but recovered to trade at $1,864.40 recently.

Gold prices climbed higher during the regular trading session as investors were wary of holding risky assets like stocks and commodities ahead of speeches by Bernanke and Obama.

Bernanke, in his speech after the market closed, said the Fed has tools to provide further support for the economy, but declined to indicate if the tools would be employed soon.

Gold, which rallied to record levels after the Fed’s previous monetary easing efforts triggered concerns about higher inflation, slipped after the speech. Gold is seen as a solid store of value and an asset that shields wealth from inflaiton.

“Prior to every major speech there is some caution, but so far the disappointment has been in the stock market, which helped gold stay firm,” said George Gero, vice president with RBC Capital Markets Global Futures. “It’s become a waiting game to see which way the economy will move and how much of a stimulus we will hear about tonight.”

The president is expected to announce $300 billion in spending in his speech Thursday night, although not all of that may be approved by Congress.

Retail gold investors are staying put despite massive gyrations in the price of gold. SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), the world’s largest physical gold-backed exchange-traded fund, has seen its gold holdings stay steady for the last six trading sessions at 1,232.31 metric tons. During this time, gold futures have run the gamut from $1,778.10 a troy ounce to $1,923.70 a troy ounce.

Gold traders are also sifting through the causes of the recent decline in gold prices. Gold’s steepest losses on Wednesday occurred just after midnight when about 6,000 contracts sold over four minutes knocked $50 a troy ounce off the futures price.

Interestingly, the number of open Comex futures contracts appears to have declined by close to this amount, with open interest down 6,162 lots to 517,132 contracts Wednesday.

“When the price and the open interest drop that is called liquidation,” said Gero.

Gold refiner MKS Finance said the sudden drop in price likely occurred after an incorrect order input.

“Instead of selling 80 lots, he/she is said to have sold 800 lots, which sprung the algorithm in the systems,” said MKS Finance in a note to clients.

A spokesman for CME Group Inc., which owns Comex, told Dow Jones Newswires: “We monitor all of our markets in real time, and there were no busted trades yesterday.” – Dow Jones