Bloomberg: Gold Declines Before FOMC Meeting as Data May Point to Recovery

Gold fell after three weeks of gains on speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve may scale back stimulus, with data due this week on growth and employment as central bank policy makers meet to assess the recovery.

Bullion for immediate delivery lost as much as 0.6 percent to $1,325.25 an ounce and was at $1,327.20 at 9:13 a.m. in Singapore. Prices are up 7.5 percent this month, and the run of three weekly advances is the longest since March.

Gold tumbled 21 percent this year after some investors lost faith in the metal as a store of value and on speculation the Fed may taper its bond-buying program that helped bullion cap a 12-year bull run in 2012. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said this month that it’s too early to decide whether to begin scaling back debt purchases in September, after saying on June 19 that bond buying could slow if the economy improves. The Federal Open Market Committee starts a two-day policy meeting tomorrow.

“There’s a raft of U.S. data coming out over the next few days,” said David Lennox, a resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney. “Everyone will be looking at that to show if the U.S. economy is continuing along at some sort of growth rate.”

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