Gold swung between gains and losses in London as a potential U.S. government shutdown threatened to boost demand for haven assets even while investors sold the metal from exchange-traded products. The U.S. government faces its first partial shutdown in 17 years at midnight tonight, potentially furloughing 800,000 federal workers and cutting economic growth by as much as 1.4 percentage points, depending on the duration, according to economists. Holdings in exchange traded funds backed by bullion slumped on Sept. 27 to the lowest since May 2010, and gold is heading for its first annual loss since 2000 as some investors lost faith in the precious metal as a store of wealth. “Indirect support is being provided by the accelerating U.S. budget dispute,� Daniel Briesemann, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said in an e-mailed report today. “ETF investors are still retreating from the gold market, and on Friday alone 4.7 tons of gold were sold off.� Gold for immediate delivery was little changed at $1,336.34 an ounce in London, after earlier climbing to $1,354.35, the highest since Sept. 20. Prices are 8.2 percent higher in the three months ending today, the first quarterly increase since the period to September 2012. Futures for December delivery fell 0.2 percent to $1,337 an ounce on the Comex in New York. The MSCI All Country World Index declined 0.5 percent and the Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge of 24 commodities slid as much as 0.9 percent. U.S. Government The House of Representatives voted yesterday to stop many of the central provisions of the Affordable Care Act for a year, tying it to an extension of government funding. Should the Senate reject the bill today the government could be shut down from tomorrow. Even if Congress resolves the fight by the deadline, lawmakers immediately move to the next fiscal dispute over raising the debt ceiling. The Treasury said measures to avoid breaching the limit will be exhausted on Oct. 17. Silver for immediate delivery fell 0.2 percent to $21.7385 an ounce, 11 percent higher this quarter and heading for the first three-month gain since September 2012. Platinum dropped 0.1 percent at $1,418.75 an ounce, heading for a 6.9 percent quarterly increase. Palladium fell 0.2 percent to $728.95 an ounce, set for an 11 percent increase over three months. To contact the reporters on this story: Whitney McFerron in London at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net; Chanyaporn Chanjaroen in London at cchanjaroen@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net

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