Gold fell 2.5 percent on Monday as growing fears about the European debt crisis prompted bullion investors to sell after last week's record highs to cover losses in the equity markets. Even though gold is viewed as a safe haven it often falls during a stock market sell-off as investors tap into the highly liquid gold market to meet margin calls outside of the commodity sector.
Fears of a Greek default that could spread widely through global markets sent global equities sharply lower. Spot gold had gained as much as 13 percent in the past 12 sessions before recoiling from last Tuesday's record at $1,920.30. "We have some technical selling now coming into the market. If we poke our head below the $1,800 level, we can see a fairly rapid downward acceleration that might carry us back down to $1,700," said Frank McGhee, head precious metals trader at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC.
Spot gold was down 2.4 percent at $1,812.49 an ounce by 1:41 pm EDT (1741 GMT). It fell more than 1 percent last week, marking its worst weekly decline since late June. US December gold futures were down $43.70 at $1,815.80 an ounce.
Silver was down 2.9 percent at $40.12 an ounce. Investor anxiety failed to lift gold despite growing fears of a Greek default. Greece confirmed on Monday that it had cash for only a few more weeks. Losses in gold accelerated as investor confidence was rattled by concerns that Moody's Investors Service could downgrade the credit-worthiness of French banks, which are widely exposed to Greek bonds.
"We had a similar situation in 2008, when stock markets dropped and pulled gold lower, as some hedge funds had to compensate loses by liquidating gold positions," said Peter Fertig, a consultant at Quantitative Commodity Research. Earlier in the session, gold priced in euros rose to a record 1,373.92 euros an ounce as the single European currency fell sharply against the dollar and the Japanese yen. The gold price has risen by a third so far this year and by 22 percent in the third quarter alone, its largest quarterly gain since 1986, driven by a push by investors seeking an alternative to sinking currencies and volatile stocks.
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