Gold prices fell on Monday, posting their biggest one-day drop in five weeks as the dollar and stocks rallied on news Hillary Clinton would not face criminal charges over her use of a private email server. This boosted her chances of winning the US presidential election on Tuesday. The final result is expected on Wednesday. The spot gold price was down 1.8 percent at $1,280.70 an ounce by 2 pm EST (1900 GMT). US gold futures settled down 1.9 percent at $1,279.40 per ounce.
"It's risk on after the FBI said it won't be taking the email saga any further," said Warren Patterson, commodity strategist at ING. "Polls are showing Clinton in the lead." The FBI said on Sunday it stood by its earlier finding that no criminal charges were warranted against the Democratic presidential candidate. "If Clinton wins, there's going to be a further correction in prices and gold may even go down to $1,250," said Joshua Rotbart, managing partner at Hong Kong-based bullion services provider J. Rotbart & Co.
The latest Washington Post-ABC and final NBC-Wall Street Journal polls published on Sunday showed Clinton ahead of Republican rival Donald Trump. On the technical front, support for gold was seen around the 200-day moving average of $1,278 an ounce. Silver was down 1 percent at $18.21 an ounce while platinum rose 0.1 percent at $997.85. Palladium was up 4.5 percent at $651.85, after rising as high as 5.3 percent to $656.90.