Gold falls more than $9 as dollar as US stocks climb

San Francisco (Feb 10)  Gold futures settled with a loss of more than $9 an ounce on Tuesday, with strength in the U.S. dollar and a rise in equities dulling the metal’s appeal, but investors continue to keep an eye on ongoing turmoil in Greece.

Gold for April delivery GCJ5, -0.56%  shed $9.30, or 0.8%, to settle at $1,232.20 an ounce on Comex. March silver SIH5, -0.97%  dropped almost 20 cents, or 1.2%, to $16.87 an ounce.

“Focus of the world market place is still on Greece’s new government, which says it is abandoning a good portion of its heretofore agreed upon debt reduction and austerity measures,” said Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco.com.

Wyckoff believes that “traders and investors are in a more risk averse mood this week as [the Greek negotiations] play out,” pointing out that “there are worries Greece could exit the European Union, which would open the door to other, smaller EU countries doing the same.”

On Monday, gold prices logged their first gain in three sessions, helped by worries over Greece as well as data that showed China’s exports unexpectedly dropped in January.

But on Tuesday, the dollar bounced back from some losses seen a day earlier and U.S. stocks advanced on hopes for an agreement between Greece and its international creditors. Strength in the dollar and equities lured some investors away from gold.

Still, Edward Meir of INTL FCStone had a mostly upbeat forecast for gold.

“While the charts seem to make the case for further declines, we still believe that we are not going to retest our lows soon, at least until we see some breakthrough with Greece, which at this stage looks less and less likely,” he wrote.

In other metals, platinum for April delivery PLJ5, -0.97%  fell $13.10 to end at $1,207.30 an ounce, while March palladium PAH5, -1.17% lost $13.95 to $765.70 an ounce. High-grade copper for March delivery HGH5, -1.12%  settled down 3 cents to $2.552 a pound.

Source: MarketWatch