Gold Drops Toward $1,200 on Dollar as Platinum Rebounds

Gold retreated as the dollar advanced toward a four-year high, reducing demand for an alternative investment. Platinum extended its rebound from a five-year low and palladium advanced.

Gold for immediate delivery fell as much as 0.4 percent to $1,203.02 an ounce, and traded at $1,205.84 at 2:35 p.m. in Singapore, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. The metal dropped yesterday to $1,183.24, the lowest level since Dec. 31, before rebounding to end 1.3 percent higher.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose as much as 0.3 percent today after dropping 0.9 percent yesterday. The gauge closed on Oct. 3 at the highest level since June 2010 after data showed that the U.S. jobless rate declined to a six-year low and employers hired more workers in September than economists estimated. The Federal Reserve is considering the timing for the first rate increase since 2006 amid the recovery.

“A stronger U.S. economy is spurring gold lower on Fed expectations,” Lachlan Shaw, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Melbourne, wrote in an e-mail today. “For now, gold may be pricing in a lift in interest rates prematurely but it is difficult for us to see gold prices finding a sustainable support in the near term.”

Gold for December delivery lost 0.1 percent to $1,206 an ounce on the Comex in New York. Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest bullion-backed exchange-traded product, were unchanged for a second day yesterday at 767.47 metric tons, the least since December 2008.

Silver for immediate delivery added 0.3 percent to $17.397 an ounce after prices yesterday climbed 3 percent, the most since June. Platinum rose 0.2 percent to $1,248.38 an ounce after slumping yesterday to $1,190.25, the lowest level since 2009. Palladium advanced 0.3 percent to $770 an ounce after dropping to $737.75 yesterday, the lowest since February.

(Source: Bloomberg)