Gold futures fall on profit-taking. Futures are down 0.2% at $3,349.40 a troy ounce. Investors appear to be taking profit after gold gained last week on U.S. trade and tariff rhetoric, Societe Generale’s Benjamin Hoff says in a note. The pause in gold’s rally to consolidate can also be partly explained by significantly stronger-than-expected U.S. economic data and gains in the U.S. dollar. These sapped some enthusiasm for the safe-haven asset, Hoff says. There will likely be continued central bank demand for gold, as dollar diversification remains a key objective for many countries, Hoff writes. Exchange traded funds, on the other hand, are much more sensitive to various aspects of uncertainty like policy, trade or geopolitical issues, making gold flows more uncertain, he adds.
