By Pham-Duy Nguyen Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Gold fell for the second time in three days as a rally in global equities eroded the appeal of the precious metal as a haven asset. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose as much as 1.3 percent to the highest in almost four weeks, erasing its 2011 loss. The MSCI World Index rallied for a fourth straight session. Gold is still headed for the biggest monthly gain since November 2009 after touching an all-time high of $1,917.90 an ounce on Aug. 23 in New York. “With stocks rallying, there’s just an excuse for investors to take profits on gold,” Frank McGhee, the head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. Gold futures for December delivery fell $4.40, or 0.2 percent, to $1,825.40 at 10:24 a.m. on the Comex. A close at that price would still leave the most-active contract up 11 percent this month and 28 percent this year. Prices surged in August on mounting speculation that the U.S. economic recovery will falter and the Federal Reserve pledged to keep borrowing costs at a record low until mid-2013. In August, gold also reached records in euros and British pounds amid Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis. Silver futures for December delivery rose 7.1 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $41.535 an ounce on the Comex. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, platinum futures for October delivery dropped $2.10, or 0.1 percent, to $1,851 an ounce. Palladium futures for December delivery rose $2, or 0.3 percent, to $781.30 an ounce. --Editors: Steve Stroth, Daniel Enoch To contact the reporter on this story: Pham-Duy Nguyen in Seattle at pnguyen@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net

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