BLBG: Gold May Decline as Near-Record Prices Spur Sales by Investors
By Nicholas Larkin
June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Gold may decline for a second day in London on speculation some investors will sell the metal after prices climbed near a record.
Gold this week rose to within 1.8 percent of a record set last month. European Union and International Monetary Fund officials will today complete a review of Greece’s plan for 78 billion euros ($113 billion) in asset sales and austerity measures as they prepare the nation’s second bailout in little more than a year.
“We rose too far, too fast,” Jim Pogoda, an investor in Summit, New Jersey, and a former precious-metals trader for Mitsubishi International Corp., said in an e-mail. Still, “the bullish arguments - euro-zone debt fears, continued unrest and potential for spreading in the Middle East and north Africa region, and poor long-term prospects for the dollar - remain intact.”
Immediate-delivery gold fell $2, or 0.1 percent, to $1,531.57 an ounce by 8:57 a.m. in London. The metal is down 0.3 percent this week. Gold for August delivery was little changed at $1,532.30 an ounce on the Comex in New York.
Concern about faster inflation, Europe’s debt crisis, a weakening dollar and fighting in Libya boosted gold to a record $1,577.57 on May 2. Prices are up 7.8 percent in 2011 after climbing the past 10 years, the longest run of gains in at least nine decades.
The dollar was little changed near a four-week low against six major currencies before a report that may show U.S. employers probably hired fewer workers in May. Manufacturing in China, Europe and the U.S. slowed last month.
Fifteen of 17 traders, investors and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, or 88 percent, said bullion will rise next week. One predicted lower prices and one was neutral.
Silver for immediate delivery fell 1.5 percent to $35.6375 an ounce in London. Palladium declined 0.4 percent to $768.25 an ounce. Platinum was little changed at $1,813.75 an ounce.
--With assistance from Kyoungwha Kim in Singapore. Editors: Sharon Lindores, Nicholas Larkin
To contact the reporters on this story: Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
