Gold slips on stronger dollar, profit-taking

By Arpan Varghese

(Reuters) - Gold slipped on Tuesday on a stronger dollar and as investors booked profits after the yellow metal hit a near three-month high in the previous session, amid safe-haven demand on the back of rising global political uncertainty.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was up 0.7 percent at 100.610.

Spot gold was down 0.52 percent at $1,229.11 per ounce at 0814 GMT. In the previous session, the metal touched $1,235.73, its highest since Nov. 11.

U.S. gold futures fell 0.06 percent, to $1,231.2.

"Participants still look to play on the long side. However, we may see profit-taking push the metal towards the 100-day moving average at $1,220.25," MKS PAMP Group trader Sam Laughlin said in a note.

Political uncertainty in the United States has been fuelled by President Donald Trump's policies, the most controversial of which is a temporary ban on entry by people from seven mostly Muslim countries.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker on Monday said he would be open to raising interest rates again at the U.S. central bank's March meeting if growth in jobs and wages continues.

The Fed raised rates for only the second time since the financial crisis in December, and most Fed policymakers agree with Harker that three more rate hikes this year would be appropriate.

"The prospects of interest rate hikes in the U.S. is more likely than most people expect and there could be one in March," said Mark To, head of research at Hong Kong's Wing Fung Financial Group.

"This should drive caution for the gold bulls since with prices rising to the $1,230 range recently, maybe more people are looking forward to the $1,250 range, and there could be some kind of reversal or correction any time soon," he added.

Spot gold may continue to rise towards a resistance at $1,249 per ounce, as indicated by a Fibonacci retracement analysis, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.

Among other metals, silver fell about one percent to $17.57. Earlier in the session, it reached $17.76, its strongest since Nov. 11.

Platinum fell as much as 0.4 percent to $1,002.3, after hitting its highest since Nov.9 at $1,015.20 early in the day.

Palladium dropped up to 1.5 percent to $760.40.

(Reporting by Arpan Varghese and Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Joseph Radford and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)