Gold lost nearly 1 percent in thinner-than-usual trade on Monday, after Japan's intervention to weaken the yen sent the dollar soaring and commodities and other risk assets into a tailspin at the start of the week. Currency-led selling pulled bullion down for a second straight day, extending a phase of consolidation from last week's short-covering surge that had lifted the price to its highest in more than a month, above $1,750 an ounce.
Despite the loss, gold posted a 6 percent gain for this month, recovering from a near-11 percent slide in September, when prices hit a record $1,920.30. "The movements in the dollar ... you have to chalk that up as the number-one negative for commodities in general on the day," said Bill O'Neill, partner of LOGIC Advisors in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Spot gold was down 1.1 percent at $1,722.65 an ounce at 2:46 pm EDT (1846 GMT). In New York, the benchmark December COMEX contract shed $22 or about 1.3 percent, to settle at $1,725.20 an ounce, after dealing in a range from $1,705.50 to $1,746.50. Futures volumes stood at around 118,000 lots in late New York trade, about 40 percent below the 30-day norm, according to Thomson Reuters preliminary data. In other precious metals, platinum was last down over 2 percent at $1,607.75, while palladium was down at $648.72 and silver shed more than 2 percent to $34.22 an ounce.