By Nicholas Larkin Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Gold may gain as investors seek an alternative to a weaker dollar, a survey showed. Twelve of 19 traders, investors and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, or 63 percent, said bullion would rise next week. Five forecast lower prices and two were neutral. Gold for delivery in February was down 0.3 percent for this week at $1,135.30 an ounce at noon in New York yesterday. The dollar fell to a four-week low against the euro on Jan. 13 after declining in 2009 for a third year in four. Gold, which last week posted its first weekly gain since November, climbed 24 percent in 2009 as governments cut interest rates and spent trillions of dollars to prop up economies and central banks in nations including India and China boosted bullion reserves. “The fundamental question is has anything changed?” said Adrian Day, chief executive officer of Adrian Day Asset Management in Annapolis, Maryland. “Investors continue to be nervous about paper money, and newly enriched central banks want an asset of real value in their reserves.” The red bars on the attached chart are derived by subtracting bearish forecasts from bullish estimates, with readings below zero signaling that most respondents expect a decline. The green line shows the gold price. The data shown are as of Jan. 8. The weekly gold survey has forecast prices accurately in 170 of 294 weeks, or 58 percent of the time.

Source