Gold also fell as some investors questioned whether the metal's recent rally has been overdone, analysts said. Gold gained in seven out of the past ten sessions, and has rallied nearly 20% this year. Gold futures for October delivery lost $15.90, or 1.5%, to $1,048 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The more actively traded December contract lost $13.30, or 1.3%, to $1,051.40 an ounce. Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust (GLD 103.11, -1.07, -1.03%) , the biggest exchange-traded fund backed by physical gold, stood at 1,109.31 metric tons Wednesday, unchanged for a sixth session. "Notably, the price gains of the past few days were not accompanied by meaningful inflows into gold ETFs," said Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank. "In view of the large amount of speculative net-long positions, the risk of a correction is increasing." On the Comex, net long, or buying, positions held by speculators rose to a record high of 239,668 contracts in the week ended Oct. 6, according to the latest weekly report by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That's up 6.7% from a month ago and nearly doubled the level at the end of last year, when gold was trading below $900 an ounce. See related story. In currencies trading, the dollar rose against the euro, with the European currency down 0.4% at $1.4872. The dollar index (DXY 75.64, +0.09, +0.12%) added 0.1% to 75.627. A stronger dollar tends to push down dollar-denominated commodities prices. In other metals trading, January platinum, the most active contract of the metal, lost $18, or 1.3%, to $1,348.60 an ounce. December palladium fell $3.95, or 1.2%, to $326.85 an ounce. December silver futures dropped 40.3 cents, or 2.3%, to $17.505 an ounce. December copper lost 5.35 cents, or 1.9%, to $2.791 a pound. Moming Zhou is a MarketWatch reporter based in New York.

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