Dollar Strength Stifles Gold's Rally
NEW YORK--Gold inched higher, as a rally in the dollar, a competing safe-haven asset, counterbalanced investors' flight to safety on a selloff in equities and commodities.</br></br>The dollar soared to a three-week high against the euro as European officials remain at an impasse on another rescue of Greece, forging fresh worries of a default. Investors shed the single European currency and riskier assets like stocks and commodities, seeking out safer bets like gold.</br></br>"It's a tossup between people fleeing from equities and putting their money into gold, and people fleeing from gold because of the dollar rally," said Jimmy Tintle, market analyst at Transworld Futures.</br></br>Gold is considered a store of value and benefits from greater investment demand when other asset classes, like equities and commodities, are doing poorly. However, demand for dollar-denominated gold eases when the dollar rallies, as it appears more expensive for holders of foreign currencies.</br></br>The contract for June delivery settled $1.80, or 0.1%, higher at $1,525.60 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.