Gold declined for the first time in four days in London as some investors sold the commodity to lock in gains from its rally to a six-month high. The precious metal climbed to $952.92 an ounce yesterday, the highest since July 22, on concern the recession and banking crisis may deepen, boosting gold’s appeal as a store of value. Today’s loss reduces the metal’s weekly gain to 2.8 percent. “We have run up too fast and too high and we should see a correction down to the $920 an ounce level,” Bernard Sin, currency and metals trading chief at Swiss refiner MKS Finance SA, said today by phone from Geneva. Bullion for immediate delivery lost $9.42, or 1 percent, to $937.33 an ounce by 9:21 a.m. local time. April futures declined $11.30, or 1.2 percent, to $937.90 in electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Bullion held in exchange-traded funds rose to all-time highs this week. Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange- traded fund backed by bullion, expanded to a record 970.57 metric tons yesterday. Holdings in the trust have advanced 12 percent this week and 23 percent in the past month. The economies of Germany and France both contracted by the most in more than two decades in the fourth quarter, the countries’ national statistics offices said. That may spur the European Central Bank to cut interest rates further. Among other metals for immediate delivery in London, silver fell 1.4 percent to $13.34 an ounce. Platinum slipped $8.50, or 0.8 percent, to $1,065 an ounce, and palladium was 0.6 percent lower at $215.25 an ounce. Automakers account for about half of global platinum and palladium consumption. European car sales plunged 27 percent in January to the lowest level in two decades, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said today. U.S. auto sales fell 37 percent in January, the worst month since 1981.

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