Investing.com - Continuous optimism over the U.S.-Sino trade talks are keeping gold bugs away from reattempting $1,300, while palladium hit record highs above those levels for a fourth-straight session on fund buying.
Gold, a hedge for financial and political troubles, fell a touch on Tuesday after U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said there was a "very good chance" for Washington to resolve its months-long trade war with Beijing. President Donald Trump also tweeted that “talks with China are going very well!”
Comex gold futures settled down $4, or 0.3%, at 1285.90 per troy ounce, virtually erasing Monday's gains. It got to an intraday high of $1,291.95 before the drop. Comex gold scaled a 7-month high of $1,300.35 on Friday and has been trying to get back to that level since.
"China talks seem promising," George Gero, precious metals analyst at RBC Wealth Management in New York, said in his daily note. "So, inevitable gold pullback today as the dollar also improved and so did the stock market."
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies and which serves as a contrarian trade to gold, was up 0.3% at 95.488.
Wall Street's key stocks indexes were all higher in Tuesday's trade.
Spot palladium set an all-time high at $1,328.20, its fourth peak above $1,300 since Friday. The precious metal, used in purifying auto emissions, has seen a steady ramp up in speculative buying by funds since late last year on concerns of tightening supply.
Palladium futures on COMEX, meanwhile, rose 2.2% to $1,268.20.
Palladium's sister metal platinum slid 0.3% to $823.90.
Silver futures fell 0.3% to $15.71.
In base metals, Comex copper jumped 0.5% to $2.65 per pound.