Gold inched down to hover around $890, pausing from a rally late last week when it rose 5 percent on strong investment demand that is seen intact amid signs that the economic downturn will persist.
By 0436 GMT, spot gold was down nearly 1 percent at $890.60 an ounce against New York's notional close of $898.10.
On Friday, the precious metal reached record highs in both sterling and euro terms, signalling bullion's strength against not only the US dollar, but currencies across the board.
"Gold is again attracting attention as a safe-haven and a good place to place your money," said Koji Suzuki, a senior analyst at SBI Futures Co Ltd.
One sign of this came in news that the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, which rose to a new record of 832.57 tonnes of gold by Jan 23, was up 13.46 tonnes from 819.11 tonnes on Jan 22.
Changes in gold ETF holdings are closely watched by market participants because sharp inflows in gold ETFs could be a bullish signal as it shows longer-term retail investors are entering the market.
Activity in Asia was subdued, however, as many financial markets were closed on Monday to mark the Lunar New Year holiday, including China's stock, money and foreign exchange markets.
In one of the latest comments on the US economy, President Barack Obama's top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, would not rule out on Sunday the chance that more money may be needed to stabilise the US financial system as the deep recession swells banks' losses.
US gold futures for February delivery inched down to $891.7 yen per ounce from $895.80, its settlement on Friday on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Platinum inched down to $953.50 an ounce from $955.50 in New York. Palladium slipped to $190 an ounce from $195.
Silver dipped to $11.86 an ounce from $11.92 late in New York. -Reuters
