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Gold again stalls out after briefly topping the $1,000 mark

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Gold couldn’t hold above the record $1,000-an-ounce level for more than a couple of days last March. That price is proving to be a hard ceiling this time around, too.

Near-term gold futures have fallen for three straight sessions since closing at $1,001.80 on Friday. The price slipped $3.40 to $968.50 an ounce today in New York, after sliding $25.50 on Tuesday and $7.20 on Monday.

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A modest rally in the dollar today may have weighed on gold, because the metal and the greenback tend to compete as ‘havens’ for nervous traders’ cash. On Tuesday, the stock market’s surge probably distracted some potential gold buyers.

Yet the metal had failed to rise Monday even as U.S. blue-chip stock indexes plunged to 12-year lows.

Gold had been on a rocket ride this year, rising from $808 an ounce in mid-January as anxiety deepened about the global economy and financial markets.

But now, mindful of what happened a year ago when gold bulls were predicting the price would soar well past $1,000, ‘the latecomers to the February rally are showing signs of apprehension,’ said Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco Bullion Dealers in Montreal.

Gold already has been widely labeled ‘the next bubble.’ Investors who jumped aboard other bubbles just before they burst -- say, tech stocks in 1999 or real estate in 2006 -- must be thinking, ‘You won’t fool me this time.’

The World Gold Council, the metal’s trade group, today further stoked bubble fears with a survey that declared gold has become the ‘most favored asset’ of investment advisers this year.

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The survey, which covered only 31 European money managers, listed gold first, followed by investment-grade bonds, a basket of commodities, cash and ‘alternative’ investments.

Veteran commodities analyst Dennis Gartman, who has been bullish on gold, warned clients in his daily market e-mail Tuesday that investor expectations for the metal had reached levels high enough to ‘cause us some concern’ about the near-term price trend.

If you’ve been waiting to buy gold for significantly less than $1,000 an ounce, your chance may be coming.

-- Tom Petruno

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