Gold came under severe selling pressure this session losing its flight to safety appeal as more strength in the dollar, a further break in oil prices and gains in equity markets seemed to ease both economic and inflation jitters. With crude oil prices breaking over 15% from all time highs, ideas that the drop in fuel prices will help to temper inflation and stimulate consumer demand has certainly undermined sentiment in gold. The gold market also appeared to be pressured by broad based physical commodity selling this session as the recovery in the Dollar has made commodities less appealing to some traders. News that the amount of gold to back the largest gold ETF fell 2% yesterday added to the bearish tone. In fact, the liquidation selling in gold tied to bearish outside market influences more than offset supportive supply side industry news. News that a strike at a major South African mine had begun to affect production seemed to have little market impact although a Russian metals producer said gold output rose sharply in the 2nd quarter.