Gold Falls on Stronger Dollar

Gold prices fell for the second day in a row on Friday as the U.S. dollar strengthened.

Gold for August delivery was recently down 0.2% at $1,243.50 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, on track for its lowest close since June 20.

The WSJ Dollar Index was recently up 0.1% to 87.81, making dollar-denominated metals more expensive for other currency holders.

Calmer markets and less perceived geopolitical risk around the world weighed on demand for haven assets like gold, analysts said. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both crept higher on Friday, bouncing after U.S. stock indexes saw their worst one-day drops in months.

"It is possible that the weakness in the equity space is being perceived as a temporary blip, which has been the pattern over the past year," said Peter Hug, global trading director at Kitco Metals, in a Friday note. "Added to this is the growing voice of the world's central banks that the easy money that has greased the equity skids may be coming to an end," he wrote.

Meanwhile, copper futures for September delivery swung between gains and losses, recently edging up 0.1% to $2.6980 a pound in New York.

Resurgent Chinese manufacturing purchasing managers index data marked an improvement on the metric's last reading. At 51.7, the June measurement marks the second-highest level so far in 2017.

"Those data came after this week's strong closes and other decent economic data," said Robin Bhar, Société Générale's head of metals. U.S. gross domestic product figures also outperformed expectations on Thursday.

Thursday afternoon saw investors buying into the broader base metals complex, and in doing so, anticipated the good U.S. and Chinese data, Commerzbank said.

"China's PMI figures were good, but this week has seen a case of traders buying the rumor and selling the fact," Mr. Bhar added.

Investors will be looking ahead to more Chinese PMI data on Monday, with next week looking relatively light in terms of other data or major political events.

Write to Stephanie Yang at stephanie.yang@wsj.com and David Hodari at David.Hodari@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 30, 2017 12:23 ET (16:23 GMT)