Gold fell on Tuesday in the face of competition from safe haven inflows into the
dollar as COVID-19 cases increased globally and investors booked profits following
bullion's rally to a near eight-year peak.
Spot gold fell 0.4 per cent to $1,776.43 per ounce by 959 GMT. It earlier touched a high of $1,786.91, $2.05 shy of Wednesday's near eight-year peak of $1,788.96. US gold futures fell 0.5 per cent to $1,784.00 per ounce.
"Even though the underlying support remains strong and (gold) demand is still on the up, the fact that we're so close to a key level of resistance has attracted some light profit-taking... coronavirus news is not strong enough to add some additional support," Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen said.
The gold market needs a weaker dollar to make a clean break towards $1,800, Hansen added.
Record increases in novel coronavirus infection in the United States has prompted cities to roll back reopening plans, while India, also the world's second biggest gold consumer, on Monday overtook Russia to record the world's third-highest number of COVID-19 cases.
Commerzbank said in a note the rise in India was likely to keep the physical market subdued.
"The strict curfew in India means that hardly any gold has been sold or imported there for months," it said.
The dollar rebounded from a two-week low, while European equities fell in response to the US coronavirus infection surge and forecasts for a deeper-than-feared euro zone recession.
"We seem to be bouncing between days of v-shaped optimism and second wave anxiety, creating this very jittery market and we're seeing that in gold as well," OANDA analyst Craig Erlam said.
Elsewhere, palladium dropped 1.03 per cent to $1,919.37 per ounce, while platinum rose about 1 per cent to $821.17 per ounce.
"Weak sales will keep auto catalyst demand soft this year," ANZ analysts said in a note.
Silver shed about 1 per cent to $18.03 per ounce.