NEW YORK, Jan 20 (Reuters) - COMEX gold was on the mend early Tuesday, recovering from last week's pre-holiday shakeout, as investor rotation into the dollar abated and precious metals dealers returned from a three-day weekend in a buying mood.
"Some of the people that got out of some stuff last week are getting back in again," said Donald Tierney of Pell Brothers Futures. "We're trying to follow the dollar again, although there didn't seem to be too big of a range over there versus the euro."
At 9:24 a.m. EST, February gold was up $2.30 at $409.60 an ounce, recouping a $1.70 drop Friday. The range so far was $410.80-$405.80, missing Friday's one-month low by 10 cents.
February gold hit a 15-year high at $431.50 on Jan. 6, but fell sharply late last week as funds used a retreat in the euro from lifetime highs against the dollar as an excuse for profit-taking on bets that bullion would keep rising.
The euro hit a one-month low at $1.2331 on Monday when New York was closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, making gold more expensive for holders of the currency. It rallied to $1.2507/11 early Tuesday.
Spot gold was priced at $408.90/9.65, up from Friday's close at $406.20/6.95. London's morning fix was $408.30.
COMEX net speculative long positions fell to 107,232 contracts from 115,985 contracts in the week ended Tuesday, according to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report released after the close Friday.
Most of gold's 4.6 percent slide last week came on Thursday, with residual liquidation on Friday. Open interest fell 6,444 contracts Thursday, which Tierney said was not much for a $13 loss in an overbought market -- a sign of stubborn bullishness.
"So we didn't lose that many people," he said.
Austrian Cental Bank Governor Klaus Liebscher on Monday put the expected renewal of the Central Bank Gold agreement, which limited European government sales and expires in September, back on front burner.
Liebscher said he was "very optimistic" that Europe's central banks can renew the 1999 pact, which limited total annual sales to 400 tonnes over five years.
"If he didn't mention anything regarding size, it really wouldn't be a factor yet," said James Pogoda, a vice president of precious metals at Mitsubishi International Corp. "It seems like a foregone conclusion that it's going to be rolled."
March silver was off 0.5 cent at $6.325 an ounce, trading $6.41-$6.275. Spot silver was at $6.30/32, up from $6.27/29 on Friday. The fix was $6.39.
Silver hit a six-year high a week ago at $6.795.
NYMEX April platinum was up $4.10 at $856.00 an ounce. Spot closed at $858.00/863.00.
March palladium was off $1.85 at $217.80 an ounce. Spot last fetched $213.00/218.00.