Hedge funds cease betting the wrong way on gold

New York

AFTER two months of a lacklustre track record in gold, hedge funds finally backed away from bullish bullion bets just before the Federal Reserve drove the biggest weekly price drop in two months.

Money managers cut their net- long position for the first time in six weeks, US government data show. Prices slumped 1.8 per cent in the last week of October after Fed officials said they are still considering raising US interest rates this year, cutting demand for the metal as a store of value.

More than US$1.05 billion was wiped during the week from the value of exchange-traded products that are backed by physical gold, the biggest drop since late July…