Gold slipped in cautious
trade on Friday, after another failed attempt to crack a
stubborn $600 an ounce barrier during a fund-led rally in New
York.
 Spot gold eased to $593.20/594.70 an ounce from
$596.00/597.50 an ounce late in the U.S. market on Thursday,
when the metal had hit a high of $598.50 an ounce.
 Some dealers expected gold to trade in a familiar $570 to
$600 range until the U.S. congressional election in early
November.
 "Unless gold breaks above $610, it will be locked in a
range of $570 to $600. A lot of people don't dare to buy gold
at this level and there's no reason to buy," said Ronald Leung,
director of Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong.
 The new benchmark October 2007 future, which was
listed on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange on Friday, ended at
2,289 yen per gram after rising as high as 2,296 --
the highest level for the benchmark contract since October 20.
 "With prices hovering near the upper-end of recent ranges,
buying interest in TOCOM was not strong," a Tokyo broker said.
 TOCOM's key gold contract has been capped around 2,300 yen
in October as weak oil prices eased concerns about inflation
and encouraged funds to shift away from gold, which is
traditionally seen as a hedge against inflation.
 Local investors also shifted their attention from gold to
buoyant grains markets, where concerns about tight supplies
pushed prices to multi-year highs, another broker said.
 Gold has struggled to stay above $600 since mid-September,
when it plunged below that level for the first time in more
than two months on the back of weaker oil.
 Some dealers attributed Thursday's gains to early strength
in oil, weakness in the dollar as well as a perception that
investors who had made money in the energy, grains and stock
markets shifted back to gold.
 But others said gold's failure to regain $600 suggested
that investors are losing faith in the metal. There has been
speculation in recent weeks that investors have ditched gold
and poured money into stocks because of strong global equities.
"We believe that the talk in the markets about asset allocation
shifts from energy markets into precious are overdone, as
confidence in gold as a future performing asset appears quite
low," said Darren Heathcote of Investec Australia in Sydney.
 "The weeks ahead could be very telling for the longer term
trend," he said.
 Crude oil edged down and hovered around $60 a barrel
after a $1 slide the previous day, as the largest U.S. oil
terminal caught up with crude loadings but more OPEC member
supply cuts lent support to a market heading into winter.
 Platinum fell to $1,068/1,073 an ounce from
$1,075/1,080 late in New York.  Palladium slipped to
$319/324 from $320/325 an ounce.
Silver edged down to $12.06/12.12 an ounce from
$12.12/12.19 late in New York.