By Nicholas Larkin July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Gold, little changed in London today, may decline as a stronger dollar curbs demand for the metal as an alternative investment. The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the currency’s value against six foreign monies, gained as much as 0.4 percent today as investors sought the greenback’s safety after two explosions at hotels in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. Gold, which tends to move inversely to the dollar, is set for a 2.6 percent gain this week after two straight drops. Gold “will continue to look to both the dollar and broader market movement for direction,” James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com in London, said today in a note. Bullion for immediate delivery lost 59 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $936.75 an ounce by 8:58 a.m. in London. August gold futures added 0.1 percent to $936.30 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division. Crude-oil futures, used by some investors as an indicator of the outlook for inflation, fell as much as 0.8 percent to $61.50 a barrel in New York today. Oil has gained 3.2 percent this week as the dollar index has lost 0.9 percent. “As we head into summer-holiday season, we expect markets as a whole to become thinner and more volatile,” Moore said. He predicted a “broad range” for bullion of between $905 and $950 an ounce. Investment in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange- traded fund backed by bullion, rose 0.3 metric ton to 1,094.85 tons yesterday, the company’s Web site showed. That’s the first increase since the fund reached a record 1,134.03 tons almost seven weeks ago. Gold held in ETF Securities Ltd.’s exchange- traded commodities fell 0.5 percent to 7.533 million ounces yesterday, its Web site showed. Silver for immediate delivery in London lost 0.4 percent to $13.255 an ounce. Platinum added 0.4 percent to $1,169 an ounce, and palladium was 0.5 percent lower at $247 an ounce. To contact the reporter on this story: Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net

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