GOLD faltered today as investors backed away from perceived riskier assets amid lingering eurozone debt concerns.
April gold fell $US9, or 0.8 per cent, to settle at $US1113.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It eased from a one-month high of $US1131.50 hit in electronic trading.
Participants were selling previously bought positions as the US dollar gained ground, and there were concerns about further US dollar gains, said Michael Gross, broker and futures analyst with OptionSellers.com.
KEY COMMODITY PRICES: oil, gold, base metals livestock and wheat
The European debt doubts continue to make investors jittery and push them toward the perceived safety of the US dollar. "There's a fear in the back of gold and silver players' minds right now that this dollar rally might not be over," Mr Gross said.
Gold often falls when the US dollar rises because a higher greenback makes the metal more expensive for purchasers using other currencies.
Further, the metal in recent months has been trading as a risk play against the perceived safety of the US dollar. Concerns swirling around the sovereign debt of Greece have driven the risk trade in recent weeks.
Fresh worries came after comments by a German Finance Ministry spokesman that no decision had been made regarding aid for cash-strapped Greece.
Gold futures also fell after running into technical resistance.
"We saw some basic resistance toward the highs" in the $US1130 area, said Patrick Donnelly, a senior market strategist at Olympus Futures.
"That was kind of a tough nut to crack," he said. "It didn't feel like we were quite ready to break through here."
Silver futures lost ground with gold. "You had a little long liquidation on fears of continued dollar strength," Mr Gross said. Comex March silver lost US19.1 cents, or 1.2 per cent, to settle at $US16.222 an ounce.
Meanwhile, Nymex platinum eased on profit-taking, some of it ahead of the approach of month-end, said a trader. The easing euro against the US dollar also pressured the metal.
April platinum lost $US11.70 to $US1531.90 an ounce. June palladium was nearly steady, gaining just US25c to $US444.05 an ounce.
