Gold slips as U.S. data and stimulus hopes boost stocks

By Jan Harvey

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold fell on Monday as strong U.S. jobs data and the prospect of more monetary stimulus from some central banks boosted stock markets, while the dollar pushed higher against a basket of currencies.

Simmering concerns over the prospect of Britain leaving the European Union kept gold underpinned, however, and it is still within $20 of last week's more than two-year high. The UK's vote to leave the currency bloc has buffeted markets in recent weeks.

Spot gold was down 0.6 percent at $1,358.60 an ounce at 1130 GMT, having touched its highest since March 2014 last week at $1,374.91 an ounce.

"The precious metal is losing some of its shine as investors are more focused on equity markets, given that the odds are high that central banks will continue to pursue their easing monetary policy for some time to come," Think Markets chief market analyst Naeem Aslam said.

"Dollar strength is also playing its part here."

Shares rose in Europe and Asia on Monday following the U.S. jobs data, while the yen fell by well over 1 percent against the dollar after Japan's ruling coalition scored a landslide election victory and ordered a new stimulus package.

The dollar had already been boosted by the U.S. jobs report on Friday, which saw investors price in the chance of a Federal Reserve interest rate increase before the end of the year.

A 24 percent chance of an increase by December is now being priced in, the CME FedWatch tool showed, though the overall view is still that interest rates will remain unchanged.

Gold is highly sensitive to U.S. interest rates, increases in which lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.

Fading expectations for a U.S. interest rate rise have pushed gold up 28 percent so far this year.

U.S. gold futures for August delivery were up $1.20 an ounce at $1,359.60 on Monday.

Data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed on Friday that hedge funds and money managers again raised their net long positions in COMEX gold and silver contracts to record highs in the week to July 5, after the June 23 vote by Britain to leave the EU.

"In our opinion, this gives rise to correction potential in both cases if speculative financial investors were to decide to take profits," Commerzbank said in a note.

Silver was up 0.5 percent at $20.36 an ounce. Among other precious metals, platinum was down 0.1 percent at $1,095.40 an ounce, while palladium was up 1 percent at $621.40.

(Additional reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; editing by Mark Heinrich)