Gold stayed in a tight band in Europe on Monday after the price stopped 50 cents short of January's 15-year peak at $430.50 per ounce in Asian trade. Dealers were focused on Tuesday's US presidential election, which was encouraging investors to stay relatively light of dollar positions.
A softer dollar makes dollar-denominated bullion more attractive for non-US investors.
Spot gold stood at $429.00/429.80 by 1513 GMT, compared with $428.15/428.90 quoted late on Friday in New York.
After testing higher ground at $430 in Asia, fund buying was spotted during Monday afternoon - led by US funds just after the COMEX market open - but the rise fell short of key levels.
"There was good fund buying in early New York trading today that pushed gold up, though there was no real impetus from the currency side. I don't think that there will be much selling ahead of tomorrow's US election," a European trader said.
A packed US data calendar for this week including non-farm payrolls on Friday was expected to keep the dollar and gold fairly volatile traders said.
"The possibility of an indecisive (election) result is likely to keep volatility high.
This coming together with the release of a new Osama bin Laden videotape over the weekend might help the gold price to crawl higher," Alexander Zumpfe of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein said in a daily report.
But analysts also raised warnings about high speculative exposure to gold on the New York COMEX futures market, heightening fears of a brutal sell-off.
"Looking at a graph of speculative open interest over the last few years, large increases in open interest are often sustained for around 4-8 weeks before a correction occurs," John Reade of UBS Investment Bank said in a daily report.
"We have now seen net longs at a high level for four weeks, indicating that a corrective sell-off could occur in the next month or so," he added.
The euro was at $1.2769/72, versus $1.2790 in late New York trading. The single currency touched a day's high of $1.2830.
Spot silver rose to $7.30/7.33, compared with $7.26/7.29 last quoted in New York on Friday.
Platinum was at $832.00/836.00, compared with $832.00/837.00 in New York. Palladium was at $207.00/211.00, versus $210.50/216.50 previously.
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