Gold edges lower on lower euro, absent US players

LONDON: Gold moved lower on Monday, with volumes easing as US markets closed for the Presidents' Day holiday, while a lower euro and flat European shares also hurt investor interest.

Physical buying from Asia, where Chinese participants returned to the market from a one-week holiday, helped prices recover from Friday's six-month low.

Gold edged down 0.1 percent to $1,607.06 by 1600 GMT, having fallen as low as $1,598.04 on Friday on heavy technical selling pressure. Prices slipped 3.8 percent last week, the largest weekly drop since May last year. US gold for April delivery inched up 0.1 percent to $1,610.60.

The metal's inability to break above $1,700 eroded investor sentiment in recent weeks. This led to Friday's sell-off, when successive falls through key support levels set a new lower technical range between $1,550 and $1,625, making the metal vulnerable to further losses in the short term, traders said.

"There is no much happening this afternoon because of the holiday in the United States, but it looks like gold wants to test more downside than upside on lack of investor buying in the near term, even as we saw a bounce back above $1,600," Deutsche Bank precious metal trader Michael Blumenroth said.

Gold holdings in exchange-traded funds (ETFs)dropped, while speculative financial investors slashed their net long positions in futures and options by 16,676 lots to a lowest since December 2008 at 70,250 in the week to Feb. 12.

Euro weakness against the dollar added some pressure on gold after comments by ECB President Mario Draghi that the currency's appreciation marked a downside risk to inflation.

Gold is usually seen as an hedge against inflationary pressures.

Market players were now awaiting the FOMC minutes on Wednesday for more clues about the Federal Reserve's future plans on their accomodative measures.

"The market is now also on hold ahead of the Fed's minutes, as people are longing for some more information on the central bank's stance on quantitative easing," Blumenroth said.