Gold, little changed today in London, may decline for a second session as some investors sell the metal to lock in gains from its rally to a six-month high. Silver and platinum fell. Gold closed at $927.85 an ounce on Jan. 30, the highest since July 28, and traded as high as $928.45 yesterday. The metal advanced 5.2 percent in January, rising for a third month and driving investment in exchange-traded funds backed by bullion, such as the SPDR Gold Trust, to a record. “The market has got too long on ETFs,” Bernard Sin, currency and metals trading chief at Swiss refiner MKS Finance SA, said today by phone from Geneva. “That’s the reason we’re seeing profit-taking. The market may be expecting a correction.” Bullion for immediate delivery lost as much as $10.17, or 1.1 percent, to $895.33 an ounce and traded at $904.74 at 1:13 p.m. in London. April futures declined $1.20, or 0.1 percent, to $906 in electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The metal declined to $902 in the morning “fixing” in London, used by some mining companies to sell production, from $918.25 at yesterday’s afternoon fixing. Spot prices reached a record $1,032.70 in March. Central banks have lowered interest rates and governments are spending trillions of dollars to revive economies. Australia today cut its benchmark rate to the lowest in 45 years. The Bank of England and European Central Bank will also make rate decisions this week. “We are still in a deflationary phase and a monumental shift in inflation expectations is needed” for gold prices to reach new highs, most likely in the second half of the year, Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst with VTB Capital in London, said in a report. “Until then, we do not expect gold prices to make much progress and gains beyond the $1,000 mark.” Gold Holdings Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the largest ETF backed by the metal, climbed 1.2 percent to a record 853.37 metric tons. Bullion held in Zuercher Kantonalbank’s ETF also reached an all- time high, rising to 3.54 million ounces (110 tons). “Rapidly growing ETF holdings are a clear sign of safe haven buying of gold,” UBS AG analyst John Reade said in a note. “This is the dominant factor in the gold market.” European producer-price inflation eased to the slowest in 16 months in December, while retail sales in Germany, the euro area’s largest economy, unexpectedly dropped for a third month in December, reports showed today. Among other metals for immediate delivery in London, silver fell 0.6 percent to $12.35 an ounce. Platinum lost $4, or 0.4 percent, to $968 an ounce, and palladium was 0.1 percent lower at $195.75 an ounce.

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