(Kitco News) - Gold prices have lost altitude as midday approaches, trading slightly lower after scoring moderate gains in earlier trading. Gold is being tugged to the downside by the major sell-off in the raw commodity sector recently, led by crude oil prices touching a six-year low on Monday. Nymex October crude oil futures traded to a low of $37.75 a barrel Monday. However, safe-haven demand amid the world stock markets' extreme sell offs is supporting the yellow metal. The world market place is presently keenly eye-balling the U.S. stock indexes, which were trading well off their daily lows at midsession Monday. If the U.S. stock indexes sell off more sharply and retest the lows today, look for gold to get a bigger safe-haven boost. The key questions for the market place right now are: Will the daily spike lows in the U.S. stock indexes hold? Or are new lows coming soon? The answers to those questions will be better known at the end of the trading week. December gold was last down $1.90 at $1,157.90.

By Jim Wyckoff, contributing to Kitco News; jwyckoff@kitco.com
Follow me on Twitter @jimwyckoff

• Gold, silver rally as Fed’s Powell leans a bit dovish   (2024-03-07 05:26:21)
• Gold, silver rally as Federal Reserve leans surprisingly easy   (2023-12-15 06:28:18)
• Wall Street and main street see continued gains for gold prices   (2023-12-03 04:08:06)
• Focus Gold prices below $2,000, but seasonals remain favorable   (2023-11-24 05:24:28)
• Retail investors bullish on gold, but Wall Street analysts shift into neutral   (2023-11-18 07:12:10)
• Gold, silver rally after tamer U.S. CPI hammers USDX, Treasury yields   (2023-11-15 05:35:06)
• Vàng chịu áp lực bán kỹ thuật, dầu thô giảm   (2023-11-09 06:48:37)
• Gold pressured on technical selling, drop in crude oil   (2023-11-09 06:47:13)
• Wall Street analysts see virtually no downside for gold prices, retail investors maintain bullish outlook   (2023-11-04 06:13:43)
• Bullish outside markets mildly support gold; U.S. jobs data on deck   (2023-11-03 06:13:17)