Daily Gold Update

Source: Marketwatch

New York— Gold futures fell Tuesday for the first session in four in thin trading, as mostly upbeat economic data on home prices and consumer confidence served to reduce the metal's investment appeal. In currencies, the dollar erased earlier losses after the U.S. data, also applying downward pressure on dollar-denominated gold prices. The most actively traded February gold contract fell $9.80, or 0.9%, to $1,098.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The December contract, expired Tuesday, sank to $1,097.60, also down 0.9%.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of global currencies, rose 0.2% to 77.758, recovering after having been down about 0.4% earlier in the session. "We expect the focus to be on year-end book squaring with traders reluctant to be particularly aggressive," said James Moore, analyst at TheBullionDesk.com. "Again we expect the dollar to provide a degree of price direction in the coming sessions." See full story.