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* * * * * * FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2013 ~ VOL. CCLXII NO. 146 WSJ.com HHHH $2 .00

ground, market experts say.Gold prices on Thursday fell

3.3% to $1,195 an ounce, the low-est close since August 2010.

“The reasons to own goldhave just evaporated,” said Jef-frey Sherman, commodities port-folio manager with DoubleLineCapital LP, a Los Angeles moneymanager that oversees $53 bil-lion. Mr. Sherman said Double-Line sold its gold holdings at aloss after a steep drop in pricesthis past spring.

Other fund managers are exit-ing as well. Third Point sold along-held gold position in thesecond quarter. Earlier thismonth, hedge funds and othermoney managers as a group heldthe smallest bet on rising gold

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Gold prices slid to three-yearlows, effectively closing the bookon a historic rally that lured in-vestors on both Wall Street andMain Street.

Barring a rebound of unprece-dented scale, the price of gold isset to notch its first annual de-cline in 13 years and its biggestdrop since 1981. Gold is down29% year-to-date.

On its way up, gold attractedlegions of investors large andsmall, including big-name hedge-fund managers such as Paulson& Co.’s John Paulson, GreenlightCapital Inc.’s David Einhorn andThird Point LLC’s Dan Loeb.They bet that the Federal Re-serve’s extraordinary stimuluslaunched after the financial cri-sis would weaken the dollar andstoke inflation, raising gold’svalue as a form of protection.

Many investors got burnedthis year when Fed officials be-gan to hint at scaling back thecentral bank’s bond-buying pro-gram designed to boost growth.Inflation had remained subduedeven after the Fed pumped morethan $3 trillion into the econ-omy. The dollar weakened in2009 and much of 2011 butstrengthened again.

The Fed’s decision onWednesday to begin trimmingbond purchases further under-mined an investing thesis thatwas already on precarious

DJIA 16179.08 À 11.11 0.1% NASDAQ 4058.13 g 0.3% NIKKEI 15859.22 À 1.7% STOXX600 319.44 À 1.7% 10-YR. TREAS. g 11/32 , yield 2.923% OIL $98.77 À $0.97 GOLD $1,195.00 g $41.10 EURO $1.3662 YEN 104.24

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What’sNews

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World-Widen Obama threatened a vetoin response to a bipartisanSenate bill that would im-pose new sanctions on Iran ifit violates a nuclear deal. A1n Insurers seeking last-min-ute enrollees under the healthlaw say they are having trou-ble attracting customers putoff by technical problems. A1n The Obama administrationsaid it would allow millions ofpeople whose insurance poli-cies had been canceled to buybare-bones plans next year. A6n Putin said he would pardonformer Yukos tycoon Khodor-kovsky after over a decade inprison for financial crimes. A9nThe Russian leader de-fended U.S. secret surveillanceprograms but praised effortsby Snowden to reveal them. A9n Pakistan’s army killed doz-ens of civilians after a suicideattack, residents said. The mil-itary denied the charges. A10n Obama commuted the sen-tences of eight people jailedon crack-cocaine charges. A4n The Senate approved abroad defense-policy mea-sure by a vote of 84-15. A4n The leader of al Qaeda’sSyrian branch floated the ideaof an alliance with secular reb-els during a TV interview. A13nRebels in South Sudanseized control of a key townand civilians took refuge in U.N.camps as violence spread. A10nNewMexico became the17th state in the country to le-galize same-sex marriage. A2nA theater ceiling in Londoncollapsed during a perform-ance, injuring 76 people. A15

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Gold fell to a three-year lowfollowing the Fed decision

to trim bond buying furtherundermined inflation fears. A1 The Fed’s role in the mort-gage market has expandedover the past threemonths andcould remain large for now. C1Treasurys sold off sharplythe day after the central bank’sannouncement. TheDowedged up to another record. C4nTargetwas in crisismodeafter a data breach may haveaffected some 40million credit-and debit-card accounts. B1nZuckerberg is set to pocketsome $1 billion from a Facebookstock sale and plans to give$1 billion in stock to charity. B1nDarden plans to shed its RedLobster chain, but themovefailed to satisfy an activist in-vestor seeking a breakup. B3nAprobe has unearthedwhatsome banks believe is evidencethat London traders colluded totry tomanipulate currencies.C3n The Forbes family is en-meshed in a tax dispute tied totheir firm’s ex-headquarters. B2nAt least six banks are work-ing on proposals for financing abid by Sprint for T-Mobile. B3nTelstra agreed to sell itsHong Kongmobile business toHKT in a $2.43 billion deal. B2nRegulators said banksmaystill have towrite down and sellCDOs under the Volcker rule. C3n Ocwen Financial agreedto pay $2.1 billion in a mort-gage-servicing settlement. C2n An ex-Microsoft employeeand his business partner werechargedwith insider trading.C3

Business&Finance

BY MATT DAY

Gold Tumbles,Putting BrakesOn Long RallyPrices Sink to Lowest Close Since 2010;First Annual Decline in 13 Years Likely

WASHINGTON—The WhiteHouse issued a rare veto threatin response to a bipartisan Sen-ate bill that would slap Iran withnew sanctions if it violates an in-terim deal reached last month tocurb its nuclear program.

The threat sets up a standoffin the new year between Presi-dent Barack Obama and morethan two dozen Senate Demo-

crats and Republicans who intro-duced the legislation on Thurs-day. The challenge to Mr. Obamais particularly stark because halfof the lawmakers sponsoring thenew bill are from his own party.

The bill could also imperil Mr.Obama’s efforts to reach a diplo-matic end to the decadelongstandoff over Iran’s nuclear pro-gram, which administration offi-cials hope will be a signatureachievement of his second term.

Iranian officials have repeat-

edly threatened in recent days toback out of negotiations with theU.S. and other global powers overTehran’s nuclear program ifWashington enacts new sanctions.

White House Press SecretaryJay Carney criticized the Senatemove, saying such sanctionswould undermine Mr. Obama’sdiplomatic efforts “no matterhow they’re structured.”

“We don’t think it will be en-acted. We certainly don’t think it

PleaseturntopageA12

BY CAROL E. LEEAND JAY SOLOMON

Obama Threatens to VetoFresh Sanctions on Iran

Adnan Ismail worked as a doctor in a Syr-ian government hospital. But civil war ledhim to a farm field where he and friends la-bored nights in secret to build a makeshiftrebel-run clinic.

For a year, Dr. Ismail helped dig walls andstairs to fashion an underground bunker thatwas eventually equipped for surgery, he said.

In wheat fields and olive groves, at privatehomes and in the backs of trucks, Syrian doc-tors like him have cobbled a health-care net-work of medical students, nurses and civil-

ians to supplement hospitals lost in theconflict. Most of these workers aren’t trainedfor the trauma injuries they see. They areshort-handed, lack supplies and are targetsof government forces. But without them, ac-cording to medical organizations monitoringthe crisis, many more Syrians would havedied in a conflict that has claimed an esti-mated 125,000 lives.

“I always requested from God an adven-turous and fulfilling life,” said Dr. Ismail, a29-year-old man of slight build who wearsthe neatly cropped beard common amongSyria’s rebels. “I think he may have taken me

too seriously.”Samer Attar, a Syrian-American orthope-

dic surgeon, saw some of this work firsthandduring a leave from Northwestern MemorialHospital in Chicago to volunteer this fall at ahospital in the rebel-held section of Aleppo.

Syrian medical residents were essentiallyteaching themselves trauma surgery, Dr. At-tar said. “They function as full-time sur-geons,” he said, recalling the stream ofwounded: “People missing limbs…faces peb-

PleaseturntopageA16

BY NOUR MALAS

MEDICAL DILEMMA

Syria’s Civil War Forces DoctorsTo Choose the Rebels or the Regime

Insurers pressing for last-min-ute enrollees under the health-care law say they are running intoa worrisome trend: Customerswho were put off by the insurancemarketplaces’ early troubles areproving hard sells.

Many people thwarted by thetechnical problems of Health-Care.gov are reluctant to tryagain, citing frustration with thefederal site, web-security con-cerns and the pressure of the holi-days, several insurers say.

While enrollment has risen thismonth after a series of fixes tothe site, problems bringing cus-tomers back to the site couldstanch those gains. With onlydays before the Monday deadlineto sign up for coverage that startsJan. 1, insurers are facing a much

PleaseturntopageA6

BY TIMOTHY W. MARTINAND CHRISTOPHER WEAVER

Last-MinuteHealth-SiteEnrollmentA Hard Sell

SHORT TIMER?: President Vladimir Putin pledged to pardon oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, seenin a Moscow court in 2004, a move many see as a bid to lift Russia’s image before the Olympics. A9

Sergei

Karpukhin/Re

uters

BOZEMAN, Mont.—A man re-ported that someone got into hisunlocked car and turned thelights on, draining the battery; awoman had questions about aman who wanted to trade a gunfor a puppy; a callerwanted to know howto get his mother tostop harassing him.

In this mountaintown (pop. 39,000),police officers’ dutiesextend beyond thedaily rounds and re-ports. They providefodder for one of thehottest books in town,“We Don’t Make ThisStuff Up: The VeryBest of the Bozeman DailyChronicle Police Reports.”

While some newspapers arebanking on the Internet andvideo to move their businessinto the 21st century, the Boze-

man Daily Chronicle is taking adifferent tack: turning its policeblotter into literature. Aftermore than 100 years of printing,the local broadsheet curates theconfusion and mishaps of every-day life and puts these thingsinto a $10 paperback whose sec-

ond edition is hot offthe presses.

Police blotters, lay-ing bare the foibles ofthe community, havebecome the focal pointof several websites andbooks around thecountry. Here in Boze-man, the concept hasreally taken flight. Inaddition to the book,the newspaper, whichhas a news staff of 19,

is now offering T-shirts and pro-moting its wares on a Facebookpage that has more than 3,000“likes.” At bookstores and othershops in town, the books are

PleaseturntopageA16

BY CAROLINE PORTER

Book ’Em: In Bozeman, FoiblesYield Sentences of Note

i i i

A Montana Newspaper TurnsIts Police Blotter Into a Local Best Seller

The police blotter

A Billion Friends

Mark Zuckerberg stands to gainaround $1 billion from his first stocksale since Facebook’s IPO. B1

Bloomberg

New

s

Source: WSJ Market Data GroupThe Wall Street Journal

Tarnished TreasureGold prices drop to their lowestlevel since August 2010

$2,000 a troy ounce

1,000

1,250

1,500

1,750

2011 ’12 ’13

Thursday: $1,195.00

Al Qaeda’s overture to secular fighters.... A13

Fed’s expanded role in themortgage market.......................... C1

‘His mother is sick, and Ibelieve that we can make adecision and will soon sign

a decree to pardon him.’VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT

‘His father and I knowabsolutely nothing abouta request for a pardon.

Nor do the lawyers.’MARINA KHODORKOVSKAYA, MOTHER

Russia’s Most Famous Prisoner Promised Freedom

Buyers of canceled plans get anew option....................................... A6

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