VINACHEM

Gold fell for a third day in Londonas strength in the dollar may mean more declines in holdingsthrough exchange-traded products. Platinum also dropped.

Holdings in gold-backed ETPs dropped 0.6 percent on May 10as the dollar reached a five-week high against six majorcurrencies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The U.S.Dollar Index climbed another 0.1 percent today as the Standard &Poor’s GSCI gauge of 24 commodities declined 0.3 percent.

“Commodities in general have been hurt by the dollar’srecent strength,” said Sun Yonggang, a macroeconomic strategistat Everbright Futures Co., a unit of one of China's largeststate-owned investment companies. “Investors are losinginterest in gold.”

Gold for immediate delivery dropped 1.1 percent to$1,431.68 an ounce by 9 a.m. in London. Prices dropped 1.5percent last week, the first decline in three weeks. Gold forJune delivery fell 0.5 percent to $1,429.90 an ounce on theComex in New York.

Gold is having its worst start to a year since 1982 afterdropping 15 percent and sliding into a bear market in April.Speculators held 67,374 so-called short contracts on May 7, 6.4percent more than a week earlier, U.S. Commodity Futures TradingCommission data show. The net-long position dropped 10 percentto 49,260 futures and options.

Silver declined 1.3 percent to $23.5706 an ounce, platinumdecreased 0.4 percent to $1,487.10 an ounce, and palladium fell0.7 percent to $702.25 an ounce.