Gold retreats from one-year high as greenback gains ground

GOLD fell early on Monday after hitting its highest level in over a year in the previous session, as the dollar recovered from last week’s lows and as lack of geopolitical developments dented safe-haven appeal.

Spot gold was down 0.70% at $1,337.61 an ounce by 0357 GMT. It rose to $1,357.54 on Sept. 8, the highest since Aug. 16 last year.

US gold futures for delivery in December were also down by 0.70% at $1,341.70 an ounce.

“The major determinant of gold last week was actually geopolitical tensions, but over the weekend, we did not see any crisis triggering event so we’re going to have less chances for gold prices in the upward direction,” said Mark To, head of research at Hong Kong’s Wing Fung Financial Group.

The US dollar won a reprieve from risk aversion on Monday and pulled away from last week’s two- and- a- half year low after North Korea held a party over the weekend rather than launch another missile.

“I would go long on the dollar for one week or so, but not for too long because the major determinants, the geopolitical tensions, are still with us and the slowing of interest rate hikes and other tightening measures are going to be with us as well,” Mr. To said.

Federal Reserve policy makers are expected to discuss balance sheet shrinkage at their next meet from Sept. 19 to 20 in Washington and are widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged.

It is too soon to predict when the Fed should next raise rates as it continues to tighten policy, given “cross currents” in the economy and markets, New York Fed President William Dudley said on Friday.

Higher interest rates tend to boost the dollar and push bond yields up, putting pressure on gold prices by increasing the opportunity cost of holding nonyielding bullion.

Spot gold may break a support at $ 1,332 per ounce and fall more to the next support at $ 1,317, said Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.

Speculators raised their net long position in COMEX gold for the eighth straight week to the highest in nearly a year in the week to Sept. 5.

Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold- backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.30% to 834.50 tons on Friday.

In other precious metals, silver was down 0.50% to $17.84 an ounce, platinum dropped 0.70% to $997.75 an ounce while palladium was 0.40% higher at $938.22 an ounce. —