Physical demand is slowing elsewhere, with sales of American Eagle gold coins by the U.S. Mint dropping 49 percent to 30,500 ounces last month, the lowest since April. The mint sold 21,500 ounces so far in August, data on its website show.

Gold imports in India, last year's biggest buyer, are set to fall as much as 50 percent in the September to December period from a year earlier, Prithviraj Kothari, president of the Bombay Bullion Association, said Aug. 21. Local prices reached a record today, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That may crimp demand at a time when a below-average monsoon in the country threatens rural incomes.

Wedding Demand

Bullion should be supported toward the end of this year and the beginning of 2013 on rising seasonal wedding and festival demand in Asia, Ronald Stoeferle, a commodity analyst at Erste Group Bank AG in Vienna, said in a report e-mailed Aug. 22.

Republican drafters of their party's 2012 platform called for the creation of a commission to "consider the feasibility" of returning the U.S. dollar to the gold standard "to set a fixed value" for the currency, according to a 60-page draft of political positions and principles that will be submitted for adoption when the Republican National Convention begins Aug. 27 in Tampa, Florida.

In other commodities, 11 of 22 traders and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect copper to gain next week and five predicted a drop. The metal for delivery in three months, the London Metal Exchange's benchmark contract, added 0.8 percent to $7,658 a ton this year.

Five of 10 people surveyed said raw sugar will decline next week and four expect an increase. The commodity slid 16 percent to 19.52 cents a pound since the start of January on ICE Futures U.S. in New York.

Corn Outlook

Thirteen of 23 people surveyed anticipate higher corn prices next week and five were bearish, while 17 of 23 said soybeans will increase and three predicted declines. Corn jumped 25 percent to $8.095 a bushel in Chicago this year and reached a record $8.49 on Aug. 10 as the worst U.S. drought in half a century damaged crops. Soybeans set an all-time high yesterday and are up 43 percent this year at $17.2375 a bushel.

The S&P GSCI gauge of raw materials entered a bull market on Aug. 21, climbing more than 20 percent from this year's lowest close on June 21. The global economy will expand 3.5 percent this year and 3.9 percent in 2013, the IMF estimates. Developing nations will grow 5.6 percent in 2012, it predicts.