Gold prices fell by the most in nearly two years, and concerns about the situation in the Middle East have eased

Spot gold fell more than 2.5 per cent to as low as $2,324.89 an ounce on Monday as investors eased fears of conflict in the Middle East, prompting them to scale back safe-haven trades in favour of riskier assets such as equities. "Some of the risk of imminent retaliation in the Middle East has been removed, which has led to some gold selling," said Daniel Ghali, commodities strategist at TD Securities. "But the question is how much downside there is." The opening rally in major Wall Street indices also weighed on gold, reducing demand for safe-haven and interest-free assets. Investors are now waiting for Friday's report on the US PCE price index for clues on the outlook for US interest rate cuts.