Gold fell to a four-week low early on Wednesday as stock markets strengthened and the dollar firmed, though prices remained hemmed into a narrow range ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting. The gold market will be closely watching the US central bank's next policy statement on September 17 for clues on the timing of a US interest rate rise.
Gold has benefited in recent years from ultra-low rates, which cut the opportunity cost of holding bullion while holding the dollar in check. Expectations rates will rise soon have helped push the metal down 5 percent this year. Spot gold was down 1.2 percent at $1,107.61 an ounce at 2:32 pm EDT (1832 GMT), after dropping 1.8 percent to $1,101.11, the lowest since August 11.
US gold futures for December delivery settled down 1.7 percent at $1,102 an ounce. "The dollar's back up again today, which is underpinning the fall, and there is possibly some pressure from the resurgent equity market," Mitsubishi analyst Jonathan Butler said. "We have another week to go before the Fed, and I think a September rate hike has been all but ruled out. The situation is just too uncertain."
Global equity markets rose, helping lift the dollar as the prospect of more economic stimulus out of Asia soothed investors rattled by recent market turmoil. Gold has failed to attract strong investor interest as a safe haven, despite the recent weakness in stocks because of worries over the Chinese economy, showing that the metal is struggling to find direction outside US monetary policy, analysts say.
"In the run-up to the Fed's meeting next week, market participants are likely to be exercising restraint, so we are unlikely to see any pronounced price fluctuations," Commerzbank said in a note. Physical prices were mixed with premiums rising on the Shanghai Gold Exchange but at a discount in India. Though gold prices are not far above July's 5-1/2-year low, bullion is still expensive compared with other cyclical assets such as silver, platinum and palladium "mainly because of the underperformance of cyclical commodities in a risk averse environment," said ABN Amro analyst Georgette Boele.
"We expect gold prices to weaken and price ratios relative to other commodities to move lower," she said. Spot platinum made the biggest losses among precious metals and fell as much as 2.9 percent to a two-week low at $974 an ounce. Silver was down 1.7 percent at $14.56 an ounce and palladium fell 1.3 percent to $576.50.