Gold futures fell, halting this week’s rally, after the price in New York failed to settle above a key moving average. In electronic trading on the Comex, gold futures for February delivery dropped as much as 1.3 percent from the day’s settlement at $1,387 an ounce, which was below the commodity’s 20-day moving average. Before today, gold dropped 2.5 percent this year after rallying 30 percent in 2010. “Gold failed an attempt to hold above the 20-day moving average, and now you’ve got a lot of technical selling that’s kicked in,” said Frank McGhee, the head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services in Chicago. “We’re seeing no buy orders. The funds stopped buying and put their hands in their pockets.” Gold futures for February delivery traded at $1,369.70 as of 3:39 p.m. Earlier, the price gained for a fourth straight day, the longest rally in five weeks. To contact the reporter on this story: Pham-Duy Nguyen in Seattle at pnguyen@bloomberg.net.

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