Gold dips despite new dollar lows

Gold's spot price dropped 0.3% to US$451.80/oz on the London Bullion Market on Tuesday despite the dollar falling to record lows. Gold futures on the Comex division of the New York mercantile exchange also fell. Although a weak dollar normally sees investors rushing to invest in gold, some analysts have suggested that the recent precious metals rally seems to have dried up due to lack of interest. "It's run out of steam," one broker told Reuters. "While we've made new highs on the euro, I don't think that it's gotten the gold market too excited as the high is only by a tad and we're really just sort of range-bound." The dollar reached a record low against the euro at US$1.3470 early on Tuesday after a warning by European officials on the euro's rise appeared to be ignored by investors determined to dump the US currency. Meanwhile, copper also contradicted recent trends as its price rose despite an increase in inventories at London Metal Exchange (LME) registered warehouses for the second consecutive day. The red metal's spot price rose 1.4% to US$1.423/lb, while three-month copper was up 1.6% to US$1.374/lb, even though inventories jumped 375t to 57,600t. This was the first rise in copper's price in six trading days.