Gold declined for a third day on speculation that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke won’t commit the central bank to further stimulus in a speech this week even as investment holdings expanded to a record. Immediate-delivery gold fell as much as 0.4 percent to $1,657.50 an ounce and was at $1,660.40 at 2:24 p.m. in Singapore. The price reached $1,676.90 yesterday, the highest since April 13, amid expectations of further easing from the Fed. Bernanke probably won’t use the Aug. 31 speech at the Fed’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to suggest a third round of bond buying is imminent, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. and High Frequency Economics. Members of the Federal Open Market Committee are monitoring unemployment and other U.S. data, and have been divided about whether to spur expansion. “Markets are now saying ‘We’re getting close, let’s just wait and see,� said David Lennox, a resources analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney. “The data to date continue to suggest his wait-and-see approach is vindicated.� The central bank’s Jackson Hole summit was the venue for a 2010 speech in which the Fed chairman foreshadowed a second round of so-called quantitative easing. Policy makers have said they are prepared to provide new stimulus “fairly soon� unless they’re convinced the economy is poised to rebound, according to the minutes of the FOMC’s July 31-Aug. 1 meeting released last week. Their next two-day meeting starts Sept. 12. Holdings in gold-backed exchange-traded products rose to 2,451.63 metric tons yesterday, data tracked by Bloomberg show. The ETP holdings stand at the equivalent of 78.82 million ounces, compared to Italy’s 78.83 million ounces, according to International Monetary Fund data. December-delivery gold lost as much as 1 percent to $1,659.10 an ounce on the Comex in New York, and traded at $1,662.20. Spot silver declined as much as 0.6 percent to $30.5313 an ounce and was at $30.6575. Platinum dropped as much as 0.9 percent to $1,530.75 an ounce and was at $1,533.17. Palladium fell as much as 0.9 percent to $644.50 an ounce and last traded at $645.90. To contact the reporter for this story: Phoebe Sedgman in Melbourne at psedgman2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

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