By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - The equities bull is back, driving gold bugs into retreat.
Global risk assets rallied Tuesday, with all three key stock indexes on Wall Street rising to temper the strong start this week for bullion and futures of the yellow metal.
Spot gold, reflective of trades in bullion, was down $5.16, or 0.4%, to $1,316.74 per ounce by 2:37 PM ET (18:37 GMT).
Gold futures for June delivery, traded on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, settled the official trading session down $7.60, or 0.6%, at $1,321.40 per ounce.
The dollar, another contrarian trade to gold, also rose, adding to the precious metal's headwinds and dimming its lure as a safe haven. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six currencies, was up 0.2% at 96.21.
Equities, the dollar and other risk assets struggled in the past two sessions after the spreads between U.S. 3-month and 10-year Treasury yields inverted, a sign of a potential recession.
"Today it's risk back on, with even crude oil prices higher and less worries of a yield inversion," said George Gero, precious metals analyst at RBC Wealth Management in New York. "The stocks rally and uptick in the dollar combined to derail the gold rally."
ADM Investor Services projected resistance for Comex gold at $1,328.90 to $1,333.60 and support from $1,315.10 to $1,305.90.
Gold hit 2019 highs of nearly $1,350 on Feb. 20 before turning choppy.
Palladium remained the world's most expensive traded metal despite a slide in prices of the silvery-white auto-component metal.
The spot price of palladium fell $30.10, or almost 2%, to 1,545.80 per ounce. It hit a record high of $1,616.30 last week.
Trades in other Comex metals as of 2:37 PM ET (18:37 GMT):
Palladium futures down $27.65, or 1.8%, at $1,515.75 per ounce.
Platinum futures up $2.15, or 0.3%, at $865.35 per ounce.
Silver futures down 14 cents, or 0.9%, at $15.43 per ounce.
Copper futures flat at $2.86 per pound.