Gold slides modestly

Gold prices dropped a bit Monday on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange as the U.S. dollar rose 0.25 percent on the International Exchange. Gold closed off $6 to $1,764.60 per troy ounce. Silver settled at $34.28, off 8 cents. The dollar was broadly higher in Asia and Europe with a few exceptions including the Japanese yen and the Singapore dollar. It was down against the South African rand and the Thai bhat, as well. The dollar stood at 78.66 yen, 7.7518 Hong Kong dollars and 0.9747 Canadian dollars. Against the stood at $1.3106 to the euro, $1.6242 to the British pound and $1.0477 to the Australian dollar.