BLBG: Gold May Decline in London as Two-Day Rally Sparks Sales
Gold, little changed in London, may decline as a two-day rally leads investors to sell the metal and as a stronger dollar reduces demand for bullion as an alternative investment.
Gold, heading for a first weekly decline in three weeks, traded as high as $924.59 an ounce yesterday and reached a three- month high of $929.70 on Jan. 30. The dollar traded little changed against the euro before a report that may show U.S. unemployment in January to the highest level since 1992.
“People may be mainly taking profit after the late move yesterday,” Sagiv Peretz, a senior dealer at trading-system operator Finotec Trading U.K. Ltd., said by phone from London. Worse-than-expected jobs data may still strengthen the dollar and cause gold to fall, he said. “A lot of people are still turning to the dollar. People want to hoard cash.”
Bullion for immediate delivery lost $1.32, or 0.1 percent, to $913.23 an ounce at 10:05 a.m. in London. April futures added 30 cents to $914.50 in electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the largest exchange-traded fund backed by bullion, extended gains to a record 867.19 metric tons yesterday. Gold assets in funds managed by ETF Securities Ltd. rose to 2.249 million ounces (70 tons) yesterday, from 2.21 million ounces Feb. 4, the company said.
Among other metals for immediate delivery in London, silver was unchanged at $12.86 an ounce. Platinum rose $6.25, or 0.6 percent, to $983.25 an ounce, and palladium was 0.6 percent higher at $203 an ounce.
