Gold pares gains on positive economic data, ends up 1.3%

The COMEX December gold futures contract closed up $13.60 Monday at $1054.00, trading between $1042.20 and $1063.40

November 2, p.m. excerpts:
(from Marketwatch)
Gold futures gained more than 1% as upbeat economic reports from the U.S., China and Europe put early pressure on the dollar. The contract earlier rose as high as $1,062.40 an ounce but lost ground as stocks began selling off, lifting demand for the dollar as a safe haven. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, rebounded to 76.357, after falling as low as 75.93 following the U.S. data early Monday…more
(from Dow Jones)
Still, the metal maintained much of its gains even when stocks gave up most of theirs. The greenback’s loss was slight as of the gold pit close, but much of the buying in gold appeared to be not only due to the dollar weakness that did occur but market expectations that the dollar will decline further going forward, said Tom Pawlicki, analyst with MF Global…more
(from Bloomberg)
“Gold is benefiting from weakness in other assets,” said Frank McGhee, the head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago. “You’re seeing a rotation into gold.” China, Japan and other Asian nations are unlikely to sell gold in coming years, according to the European Central Bank’s main adviser on money-market operations. “If anything, we will see a stabilization, if not an increase, in reserves of gold,” the ECB’s Paul Mercier said today at a conference in Edinburgh…more

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November 2nd’s audio MarketMinute