Gold Is Unmercifully Beaten By US Greenback

There was a second day gold slip in Asia after the euro dropped yesterday from a record against the dollar.

Crude oil fell for a second day, reducing demand for bullion as an inflation hedge. The dollar had its biggest advance against the euro in more than a week yesterday after the European Central Bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4 percent.

Bullion for immediate delivery dropped as much as $4.65, or 0.5 percent, to $924.34 an ounce and traded at $925.72 at 10:06 a.m. Singapore time. Yesterday the bullion inched up as high as $939.70 an ounce. Silver was little changed at $17.915 an ounce.

The dollar traded at $1.5755 against the euro at 10:09 a.m. in Singapore, from $1.5742 in New York late yesterday, when the currency had its biggest advance against the euro since April 1.

Gold for June delivery declined 0.3 percent to $929.10 an ounce in after-hours electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:11 a.m. Singapore time.

Gold for February 2009 delivery on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange gained 15 yen, or 0.5 percent, to 3,060 yen a gram ($932 an ounce) at the 11:00 a.m. local time break.

June-delivery gold on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 0.9 percent to 205.40 yuan a gram ($913 an ounce).