Mubasher: Gold went down on Tuesday as strong equities established a risk-conducive backdrop for market participants, countering support lent from the US push to end Iran oil sanction waivers, according to Reuters.

By 8:23 am GMT, US gold futures fell 0.14% to $1,275.80 per ounce, while spot gold declined 0.08% to $1,273.91 per ounce.

“Gold is currently trying to find a short-term bottom around $1,274-1,275 per ounce level, especially as equity markets continue to rally,” Singapore-based CMC Markets analyst Margaret Yang was quoted by the news agency.

Asian stocks headed for a nine-month high tapped last week, while Wall Street shares approached break-even on Monday with the benchmark S&P 500 index was nearly 1% away from the record peak reached last September.

Strong stock markets capped the yellow metal’s appeal, as it sank by more than 5% below its high recorded last February.

Better-than-expected economic figures from both the US and China, the world’s biggest two economies, allayed investor worries over a sharp global slowdown.

Nevertheless, escalating geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran, with Washington aiming to end sanction waivers granted for Tehran’s biggest eight importers, sent crude prices to rally, and provided ground to gold, OANDA senior market analyst Jeffery Halley was cited by Reuters.

It is worth noting that the precious metal is often used as a hedge against oil-led inflation.

However, the oil price increase was not enough to shift the overall sentiment surrounding gold, Halley said.

“It just seems to be marking time, before other factors like a stronger dollar or equities exert downward pressure on the market,” he added.

The US dollar also hovered near a 2019 peak of 97.71, registered in early March.

At 8:23 am GMT, the dollar index, a tracker of the greenback against a basket of six major peers, edged up 0.04% to 97.32.