LONDON: Gold steadied on Tuesday as the dollar trod water against a basket of currencies, with investors reticent to bid up the metal in the face of looming US inte­­rest rate increases and escalating Sino-US trade tensions.

Since its April peak gold has dropped more than 12 per cent as a trade war between China and the US has driven investors to seek safety in the dollar rather than in gold, a traditional safe haven.

Bearish bets on Comex gold have risen to record levels while investors have liquida`ted exchange-traded gold fund holdings.

“(There’s) a generally strong dollar backdrop, which is keeping the precious metal under pressure. The market is very short gold futures,” said ICBC Standard Bank analyst Marcus Garvey.

Spot gold dipped 0.1 per cent to $1194.55 an ounce at 1144 GMT while US gold futures were flat at $1199.70.

In other precious metals, silver fell 0.3 per cent to $14.1 an ounce, platinum firmed by 0.4 per cent to $785.30 and palladium was down 0.7 per cent at $969.10 after hitting its highest in nearly 12 weeks at $991.15.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2018