Managed-money investors cut net long gold positions on US commodity exchange COMEX by just over 1% to 172,050 contracts for the week to April 26, the first decline in net long positions for three weeks, data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed Tuesday.
Net long positions in gold declined 1.2%, but remained close to last week's four-year high of 174,107 contracts, data showed.
Strong investor support has helped gold climb over 20% since the start of January, to 16-month highs Tuesday morning around $1,300/oz.
Gold is also benefiting from a weak US dollar, hitting eight-month lows against the euro over $1.16 Tuesday morning. The US Dollar Index has slumped to its lowest level since January 2015, at $92.15 as of 0930 GMT.
Strong investor demand can also be seen in renewed demand for gold-backed exchange-traded funds.
SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed ETF, showed inflows of 22.29 mt for the week ending Monday, including the largest one-day inflow since 2011 on Monday.
After weeks of declines, it takes total assets held by the fund to around 825 mt, the largest level since December 2013, according data released by the company Tuesday.
Meanwhile, net long positions in silver were up 4.8% to a new record high of 71,160 contracts, according to CFTC data.
Having outperformed gold recently, silver is struggling to keep up with gold Tuesday, down from last week's 15-month highs, to around $17.50/oz Tuesday morning.
The gold-silver ratio is up to around 73, from last week's one-year lows below 72.
Platinum contracts were 19.8% higher to 21,076, according to CFTC data, while palladium contracts were up 28.8% to 7,165 contracts.
