Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Gold may fall for a third day in New York as a stronger dollar and data signaling a recovery in the U.S. economy curb demand for the metal as an alternative investment and protection of wealth. The dollar rose to a one-week high against the euro before a report tomorrow that may show U.S. payrolls rose for a third month. Reports this week showed orders placed with factories and manufacturing improved in the U.S. Gold, which usually moves inversely to the greenback, yesterday slid to the lowest level since Dec. 16. It reached a record $1,432.50 an ounce on Dec. 7. Amid “a stronger dollar and more importantly, growing conviction in the U.S. recovery as macro data improves, gold is struggling to assert itself despite very decent physical demand across much of Asia,” Edel Tully, an analyst at UBS AG in London, said in a report. Gold futures for February delivery lost $2.80, or 0.2 percent, to $1,370.90 an ounce by 7:57 a.m. on the Comex in New York. Prices fell as low as $1,364 yesterday. The metal for immediate delivery in London was 0.6 percent lower at $1,370.63. Bullion rose to $1,376 an ounce in the morning “fixing” in London, used by some mining companies to sell output, from $1,368 at yesterday’s afternoon fixing. Gold jumped 30 percent last year after governments spent trillions of dollars and kept interest rates low to bolster economies following the worst global recession since World War II. Precious-metals prices rose as investors lost confidence in currencies and became more concerned about the fiscal health of euro-region countries including Ireland. Payrolls Increase? Reports yesterday showed service industries in the U.S. expanded in December at the fastest rate since 2006 and companies boosted payrolls last month by the most since at least 2001. A report tomorrow may show U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 150,000 in December, according to the median forecast of 77 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Gold assets in exchange-traded products fell 3 metric tons to 2,091.77 tons yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from 10 providers. Holdings reached a record 2,114.6 tons on Dec. 20. Silver assets added 1.68 tons to 15,105.23 tons, data from four providers show. Silver for March delivery in New York fell 0.4 percent to $29.075 an ounce. The metal dropped 6 percent this year after surging 84 percent in 2010 and reached a 30-year high of $31.275 on Jan. 3. “Silver and platinum are different from gold in that they are used a lot in industries too,” said Sam Lee, a trader at KR Futures Co. “Improving economic indicators out of the U.S. means silver and platinum can continue to go up higher, while gold may flatten.” Platinum for April delivery was 0.3 percent lower at $1,728.80 an ounce. Palladium for March delivery slipped 1.5 percent to $763.50 an ounce. It was the best-performing precious metal last year with a surge of 96 percent and reached $808.90 on Jan. 3, the highest level since March 2001. --Editor: John Deane To contact the reporters on this story: Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net; Sungwoo Park in Seoul at spark47@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.

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