Gold dips on US dollar strength

Frankfurt (Nov 17)  Gold prices in Europe edged lower on Monday in response to a stronger dollar, after an impressive upswing on Friday.

Spot gold was trading at $US1,186.58 a troy ounce, down 0.1 per cent.

The yellow metal is a dollar-denominated commodity and becomes more expensive to buy for those holding other currencies when the greenback gains, leading to a drop in demand and in price.

Despite the dip, "the eagerness to sell gold will have abated after Friday's move, so I don't see a massive drop on the cards," Marex Spectron's David Govett said.

However, gold prices are still seen likely to "[rally] hard after Swiss polls are showing that they could vote in favour of the SNB [Swiss National Bank] holding more gold," said Numis Securities.

The rest of the precious metals market was in negative territory on Monday. Silver was down 0.6 per cent at $US16.180 an ounce, platinum was down 0.3 per cent at $US1,205.20 an ounce, and palladium was down 0.2 per cent at $US762.30 an ounce.

Source: BusinessSpectator