By Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Gold clawed back a bit of lost ground early Tuesday as the U.S. dollar eased and profit-taking subsided.
Midday Tuesday in East Asia, gold for April delivery GC2J +0.33% was trading up 0.2%, or $4, at $1,738.40 an ounce, rising from its Monday settlement of $1,734.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Monday had seen the benchmark Comex gold contract slip by $1 on the back of a strengthening dollar. See report on Monday’s gold trade.
But the dollar lost ground during Asian morning trade, with the ICE dollar index DXY -0.29% slipping to 78.878 from its 79.142 level late Monday in North America.
Commodity researchers at Commerzbank pegged Monday’s losses to investors locking in recent gains following gold’s seven-week high at the end of last week.
They added that there was still “a risk of more profit-taking from ... if market sentiment deteriorates,” with risks including weak demand from major gold importer India.
Among other precious-metals futures, Comex March silver contracts SI2H +0.46% followed gold higher, rising 9 cents, or 0.3%, to $33.62 an ounce.
April platinum PL2J +0.62% rose 0.5% to $1,624.90 an ounce, while March palladium PA2H +0.50% added 0.4% to $691.00 an ounce.
March copper HG2H +0.16% was little changed, however, holding at the $3.83-per-pound level from its New York settlement after falling 1.6%, or 6 cents, on Monday.
Michael Kitchen is Asia editor for MarketWatch and is based in Los Angeles.
