By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Gold futures lost ground in electronic trade Tuesday, with the precious metal nearly erasing the modest price gain it notched in the previous session.
Gold for June delivery GCM3 -0.46% fell $3.60, or 0.3%, to $1,464.30 an ounce during Asian trading hours.
On Monday, June futures rose $3.80, 0.3%, aided by reports of higher demand for physical gold.
Bullion dealers have said that demand for gold bars and coins remains strong, even after jumps in April gold bullion sales. In India, demand is up ahead of the Akshaya Trithiya festival on May 13, analysts have said. The purchase of gold for the Hindu festival is seen as a way to ensure prosperity and wealth.
Gold investors later Tuesday may monitor the release of the U.S. Labor Department’s report on March job openings. The Federal Reserve will review the data as part of its assessment of labor-market conditions and the pace of its bond-purchasing program.
That report will follow the April U.S. jobs report released Friday, which showed the economy created a more-than-expected 165,000 jobs.
A batch of positive economic reports could dull gold’s safe-haven appeal, as well as raise prospects that the central bank will taper bond purchases — or quantitative easing — that benefits gold.
Quantitative easing can raise the risk of inflation, and gold is seen as an inflation hedge. Read Andy Xie's column on gold as the ultimate hedge on inflation.
In other moves Tuesday, copper for July delivery HGN3 -0.48% was unchanged at $3.31 a pound. The futures on Friday jumped nearly 7% following the April jobs report, as the industrial metal benefits from improvements in the economy.
Silver for July delivery SIN3 -1.55% lost 22 cents, or 0.9%, to $23.73 an ounce, extending Monday’s decline of 0.3%. July platinum futures PLN3 -0.90% fell $12.30, or 0.8%, to $1,495.40 an ounce, and June palladium PAM3 -1.06% lost $6.70, or 1%, to trade at $690.40 an ounce.
