SEATTLE (Bloomberg) — Gold may fall for a second week on speculation US economic growth will boost the dollar and erode the appeal of the precious metal as an alternative investment.Fifteen of 31 traders, investors and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg from Sydney to Chicago on January 3 and 4 advised selling gold, which fell 4.9 percent last week in New York to $606.90 an ounce, the biggest percentage decline since October. Twelve respondents said to buy, and four were neutral.

The drop in gold was part of a slump in commodities to their lowest level since February 2005. The US said January 5 that employers added more workers than forecast in December, sending the dollar to a six-week high. Gold usually moves in the opposite direction of the dollar. The metal rose 23 percent last year as the US currency tumbled 10 percent against the euro.

“The dollar is rallying because this job report is implying a much tighter Fed policy,” said Michael Guido, director of hedge-fund marketing at Societe Generale SA in New York. “It puts a kink in the rate outlook, and that’s why gold is looking so weak. The trend is broken.”

Gold futures for December delivery fell $31.30 an ounce last week on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The loss surprised a majority of analysts who predicted a gain on December 27 and 28. The Bloomberg survey has forecast the direction of prices accurately in 85 of 141 weeks, or 60 percent.

Employers in the US added 167,000 workers in December, following a 154,000 increase in November, the government said. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for a gain of 100,000 jobs.

“The Fed is not going to cut rates, and the economy is still strong,” said Leonard Kaplan, president of Prospector Asset Management in Evanston, Illinois, who expects gold to average $585 this year. “Gold has broken major support. The funds are liquidating everything.”

Interest-rate futures show traders see a six percent chance the Fed will cut its overnight lending rate between banks by a quarter-percentage point in March, down from a 23 percent likelihood before the report. The central bank kept rates at 5.25 percent at its past four meetings following 17 straight increases.

A month ago, rate futures signalled traders were convinced the Fed would lower rates in March.

“Many people forecast the dollar would collapse, but the dollar is pretty steady for several years now,” said Pom Chong Kim, assistant manager at Hansung Co., a precious-metals trading company in Seoul. “A lot of people said gold will rise this year, but sometimes, the market goes in the opposite direction when too many people think like that. I’m recommending investors sell.”

The metal dropped below the 200-day moving average on January 5, a signal that prices may continue to decline.

“This is not the time to be a buyer,” said Ralph Preston, a commodity analyst at Heritage West Financial Inc., a futures brokerage in San Diego, California. “Markets are momentum-driven, and when they can’t break through resistance, they will search for support. I’m calling for a close under $600 this week.”