Gold down on economic worry, volume light due to storm

Last week, gold declined for the third straight week due to a string of lackluster U.S. economic data and uncertainty over the future of U.S. Federal Reserve stimulus. It was gold's first three-week decline in more than a year. Hurricane Sandy, which forecasters said could be the largest to hit the mainland in U.S. history, led to the first weather-related shutdown of U.S. stock markets in 27 years. Wall Street will remain shut through Tuesday.

Other than light trading volume, the gold market largely ignored Hurricane Sandy, which was expected to wreak havoc for 50 million people from the Mid-Atlantic to Canada in her path.
"Gold is a 'safe-haven' for economic and political events. Weather has virtually nothing to do with gold," said Bill O'Neill, partner at commodities investment firm LOGIC Advisors. Analysts and traders said they expected gold to trade in a narrow range due to uncertainty ahead of Friday U.S. non-farm payrolls. The Fed has explicitly tied the extent of its latest buyback of mortgage bond-buybacks to the jobs market recovery. The U.S. Department of Labor said on Monday it intended to release its jobs data on Friday which might now be delayed because of the massive storm.

Trading desks will be lightly staffed due to the massive storm...and the fact that the polls remain tight will likely discourage investors from taking a definitive view on the precious metals group for the next few days," Edward Meir, metals analyst at brokerage INTL FCStone.

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