Gold’s “slow grind up”

The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) advanced 0.6% to 77.031 this afternoon, while the euro currency dropped 0.7% to 1.3775 against the greenback.

Phil Streible, a senior market strategist at MFGlobal, presented a bearish case for the Gold in a recent note to clients. Gold’s “slow grind up” over the past two weeks “makes me think gold prices could correct,” he wrote. ”If it takes out $1,650 then $1,605 is the target.”

The gold price, at $1,684 per ounce, hovered near unchanged Tuesday morning. After trading as high as $1,695 overnight, the price of gold retreated after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief spokesman, Steffen Seibert, warned that a quick ending to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe was not forthcoming. S&P 500 stock futures turned down on the news while cyclically-sensitive commodities, such as oil and copper, pared their gains.