Chicago, Sep 9 (IANS): Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled slight lower on Tuesday as US stocks rally shifted investors's attention.

The most active gold contract for December delivery lost $0.40, or 0.04 percent, to settle at $1,121.00 per ounce, Xinhua reported.

Gold settled lower as US stocks traded sharply higher on Tuesday, when Wall Street tried to rebound after a long weekend.

The rally of European stocks also gave gold additional pressure. On Tuesday, French stock market index went up 1.07 percent, the FTSE 100 Index, the benchmark for London Stock Exchange, added 1.18 percent, while the benchmark DAX index at Frankfurt Stock Exchange also settled higher.

On Monday, the market was closed for the US Labor Day holiday.

On Friday, gold futures ended lower after a key US jobs report, which said employers added 173,000 workers in August, which was at Bloomberg's low-end estimate of consensus, while unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent, the lowest since April 2008, with average hourly earnings up 0.3 percent.

The investors were awaiting the Federal Reserve's monetary-policy meeting next week to judge the direction of gold futures, said analysts.

Silver for December delivery gained 20.6 cents, or 1.42 percent, to close at 14.755 dollars per ounce. Platinum for October delivery added 10.50 dollars, or 1.06 percent, to close at 1002.90 dollars per ounce.