NEW YORK, July 23: Gold futures in New York slid off a nine-day high to finish lower on Friday, under pressure as the euro eased while currency traders mulled China’s currency revaluation, dealers said.

August delivery gold lost 70 cents to end at $425 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s COMEX division, after dealing in a range of $424.50 to $426.90.

Liquidation-type profit taking and contract rollover emerged in gold as the dollar firmer before the weekend and as markets remained jittery following Thursday’s attempted bombings in London.

We broke a two-week downtrend on Wednesday and rallied in the last few days, and I think now you’re just seeing some end-of-the-week book squaring, said a broker at a futures commission merchant.

The euro eased to $1.2076, from above $1.21 previously. Gold has a tight inverse correlation with the dollar as some investors use it as a dollar alternative.

Currency traders still were assessing China’s decision to bow to international pressure to revalue its currency. China shifted the yuan’s value up by 2.1 per cent against the dollar, to 8.11 yuan, and left the door open to further rises.

Markets also tracked developments in London as police shot dead a man at a tube station while hunting for bombers who struck the city’s transport network Thursday for the second time in two weeks.

Analysts at TheBullionDesk.com said that spot gold seemed underpinned at $425 as Thursday’s incidents in London suggested a terror campaign on UK soil is now a credible threat.

But resistance was stiff up nearer to $430, they said.

Spot gold reached $424.50/ 425.30 an ounce, off from New York’s late quote on Thursday at $425.30/6.00. London’s afternoon fix on Friday was $425.

On COMEX, speculators in gold who are long but don’t plan to take physical delivery also have begun to switch positions from the August contract into next active December futures before first notice day next Friday, traders said.

Final volume was estimated at 73,000 lots, with 11,586 switches, compared with Thursday’s final tally of 88,977 lots.

Open interest rose 1,079 lots to 268,426 lots on Thursday.

After gold hit a 16-year high at about $458 in December, the market has moved into an increasingly tight range defined by May’s low at $415.80 and June’s peak of $445.40.

September silver shed 2.0 cents to $7.115 an ounce, trading from $7.09 to $7.185. Spot hit $7.06/09 an ounce, off from $7.09/12 previously. It fixed at $7.115. October platinum rose to a three-week high, lifted by expectations that China’s yuan move will mean more metal imports. Futures ended up $4.60 at $890.60 an ounce. Spot platinum last was at $887/890.

September palladium powered to a three-month high before ending down $1.75 at $195.55 an ounce. Spot reached $193/196.—Reuters