Gold price drops to near 2-month low

London (Aug 25)  Gold held close to its lowest in two months on Monday, as the dollar marched higher after central bank heads signaled that interest rates were set on a diverging course in the United States, Europe and Japan.

At a gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen nodded to the concerns of some Fed officials about the sustained level of monetary policy stimulus, even as she stressed the need to move cautiously on raising rates.

The heads of the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan pledged more policy stimulus, which weighed on the euro and the yen versus the US currency.

Gold was down 0.2 percent at $1,278.10 an ounce by 1337 GMT. The metal fell 1.8 percent last week, its biggest weekly fall in a month, hurt by strong US economic data and speculation of an early interest rate increase, which sent prices to their lowest in two months at $1,273.06 on Thursday.

US gold futures GCcv1 fell $1.30 at $1,279.70 an ounce. Electronic trading was halted for four hours on Monday due to a technical glitch.

Source: ArabNewws