LONDON—The spot price of gold pushed lower for a third day, falling below $1,220 a troy ounce as the U.S. dollar firmed against the euro, reducing interest in commodities.
Spot gold was down $8.30, or 0.7%, at $1,217.60 and down 1.6% from its seven-week intraday high of $1,237 set Thursday.
"Not even gold, which has gained substantial relative strength compared with other commodities lately, has been able to defy the strength of the dollar today," Commerzbank said.
But traders said the outlook remains supportive given ongoing worries about the global economic recovery, they added.
"The market is fairly long, so some profit-taking after the run up last week was to be expected," said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London.
BaseMetals.com analyst Will Adams said it is "somewhat surprising" that gold is under pressure, as the strong dollar and yen suggest a shift into safe-haven products. He expects dips in gold to run into good buying.
Other precious metals also declined. Spot silver was 0.4% lower at $17.91 an ounce, spot platinum was down 0.9% at $1,494 an ounce and spot palladium was 1% lower at $477 an ounce.
