Gold fell more than 1 percent on Monday as lacklustre physical buying prompted traders to cash in three days' gains, while early gains in equities dented bullion's safe-haven appeal. Spot gold was down 1.3 percent to $1,272.54 an ounce by 3:39 pm EST (2039 GMT). The metal had gained almost 2 percent in the last three days.
US gold futures for December delivery settled down $15.10 an ounce to $1,272.30, with trading volume about 40 percent below its 250-day average, preliminary Reuters data showed. Among other precious metals, silver was down 1.9 percent at $20.37 an ounce, while platinum slipped 2.1 percent to $1,406.99 an ounce and palladium fell 2.1 percent to $714.83 an ounce.