Gold fell 2% on Tuesday, en route to its biggest one-day dip in over a month, as expectations the United States may drop tariffs on Chinese imports assuaged some fears of a global recession.
Spot gold slid 1.8% to $1,481.81 per ounce as of 2:03 p.m. EST (1903 GMT). US gold futures settled down 1.8% at $1,483.70.
The metal, which tends to gain during times of economic and political crisis, fell as much as 2% to its lowest level in nearly three weeks at $1,479.25 an ounce earlier in the session and was on track for its biggest one-day percentage drop since late-September.
"The main factor (for gold's slide) is the rollback in some of Chinese import tariffs and part of the 'phase one' trade deal going through," said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.
"Also, global equities have been trading significantly higher in the last few sessions, coupled with a little bit of a break in the US-China tariffs, putting pressure on anything where there is safety right now."
China hopes for the removal of more tariffs imposed by the United States in September as part of a "phase one" US-China trade deal, which may be signed this month by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trade truce hopes and upbeat economic data rekindled optimism about the global economic outlook and pushed the dollar index and bond yields higher.
"Rallying world stock markets that saw the US indexes score more record highs overnight are keeping demand for the safe-haven metals squelched," Kitco Metals senior analyst Jim Wyckoff said in a note.
Meanwhile, a slew of investment in gold-backed exchange traded funds (ETFs) offset a decline in purchases of jewellery, bars and coins to push global gold demand slightly higher in the third quarter, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Tuesday.
Among other metals, silver dipped 2.4% to $17.61 per ounce after falling to its lowest since Oct. 24, while platinum fell 0.8% to $927.75 per ounce.
Palladium edged 0.1% lower to $1,777.66 an ounce, having touched its lowest in nearly two weeks. The metal hit an all-time high of $1,824.50 on Oct. 30, driven by a sustained supply crunch for the autocatalyst metal.
"With palladium expected to stay in deficit and new mine-supply additions lacking next year, prices are likely to remain propped up to incentivize more scrap supply and curb demand growth," UBS commodity analyst Giovanni Staunovo said in a note.
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