Profit-taking plus a renewed appetite for risk chipped away at gold's early gains Monday, sending the yellow metal slightly into negative territory.

The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committe will discuss a wide range of options next month in what had been scheduled to be a one-day meeting. However, Ben Bernanke is doubling the length of that gathering, perhaps to gain time to convince members to go along with another round of money printing, according to traders.

An extra day of deliberations scheduled for the September FOMC meeting kept hope of another QE3 on the table, said ANZ Bank in a note on Monday.

In addition, a call by the new head of the International Monetary Fund for coordinated action by the world's central banks to head off a global recession implies an emerging, transnational intervention by the world's key central banks.

Such developments are giving investors a greater willingness to leave safe-haven securities like precious metals for stocks.

In late morning trading, the S&P 500-stock index rose 1.87 percent to 1198.95 and the Nasdaq composite index was up 2.1 percent.

December gold, the most actively traded contract on the CME Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, fell to $1,793.20 per ounce from $1,797.30.

Silver for September delivery also fell, to $40.81 per ounce from $40.95 per ounce.

Gold Ben Bernanke New York International Monetary Fund