Gold Eases A Bit As Dollar Rally Pauses

Gold was little changed in Asia as a rally in the dollar against the euro stalled and crude oil fell further from record levels.

Gold declined 3.4 percent last week as the dollar gained 2.5 percent against the euro, while crude oil extended losses today to trade 3.7 percent below the record $139.12 a barrel set on June 6, eroding the appeal of the precious metal as a hedge against inflation.

Bullion for immediate delivery was 0.2 percent higher at $872.95 an ounce at 10:38 a.m. in Singapore. Silver was also little changed at $16.59 an ounce at the same time.

The U.S. currency lost 0.2 percent today to $1.5409 per euro at 10:34 a.m. Singapore time. Crude oil futures fell 0.7 percent to $133.98 a barrel.

Currency forecasters are betting that the dollar rally is just getting started as the Federal Reserve's shift to fighting inflation makes it likely to raise interest rates more aggressively than the European Central Bank.

Interest-rate futures show a 22 percent chance the Fed will raise borrowing costs by 0.25 percentage point by June 25, compared with no chance a week ago.

For gold, $845 an ounce is ``critical'' as a break would likely complete ``an ill-formed topping formation'' on historical price charts, implying a deeper decline to $795, Jordan Kotick, head of technical strategy at Barclays Capital Inc. said in a report today.

Gold for August delivery was 0.3 percent higher at $875.40 an ounce in after-hours electronic trading on Comex at 10:39 a.m. Singapore time.

Gold for April 2009 delivery gained 21 yen, or 0.7 percent, to 3,062 yen a gram ($877 an ounce) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange at the 11 a.m. local time break.