Gold fell for a second session on Wednesday on renewed fears over Europe's debt crisis and as speculation receded that more stimulus to boost a slowing US economy were imminent. The metal was under pressured after comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, cited in a media report, raised concerns about the future of the euro zone, and as the International Monetary Fund urged the European Central Bank to play a bigger role to fix the region's crisis.
Spot gold was down 0.5 percent at $1,575.45 an ounce by 2:36 p.m. EDT (1836 GMT). US COMEX August gold futures for August delivery settled down $18.70 an ounce at $1,570.80, with trading volume at about 10 percent below its normal pace, preliminary Reuters data showed. Among other precious metals, silver edged down 0.5 percent at $27.16 an ounce. Spot platinum was down 0.8 percent at $1,401.55 an ounce, while spot palladium dropped 1.3 percent to $571.93 an ounce.