SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures sold off on Monday, as a stronger dollar and profit-taking after recent highs took a toll on metals and other commodities futures.
The broader metals complex tracked gold lower, with palladium among the top losers, off 4%.
Gold gained 0.3% last week after the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest round of quantitative easing and policy action by central banks in Europe and Japan encouraged buyers to seek tangible assets amid fears of inflation.
Gold is viewed as a safe store of value and tends to benefit from expectations of currency debasement. Monday’s fall has chipped away at monthly and yearly gains, but those are still at a respectable 4.6% for the month and nearly 13% for the year.
The metal’s luster hasn’t faded, as Barclays upgraded its gold price forecasts and more money managers upped their “long” bets, or expectations prices will go higher.
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Gold for December delivery GCZ2 -0.61%declined $13, or 0.7%, to $1,765.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Many investors wanted to be long on gold over the weekend as a cautionary measure, but dumped gold and other metals on Monday to take recent profits, said Carlos Sanchez, director of risk management at CPM Group in New York.
Sentiment on Wall Street was also dented, as worries centering around Spain and whether the embattled country would ask for a full-on bailout, pushing the euro lower.
source here | 24 Sept 2012 >>
