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(Bloomberg) — Gold’s image as a haven asset has taken a battering with the metal heading for its third-straight annual loss amid the sale of gold-backed funds by investors. Bullion for immediate delivery was little changed at $1,061.65 an ounce at 8:05 a.m. in Singapore after declining 0.7 percent on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. It’s down 10 percent this year following a 1.4 percent drop in 2014 and a 28 percent loss in 2013. Gold is in the longest slump since 2000 as the dollar surged on the back of monetary policy tightening in the U.S, joining a collapse in prices of commodities from iron ore to oil. Holdings in gold exchange-traded products have declined 10 times in the last 13 sessions to 1,466.45 metric tons, near the lowest in more than six years.“Gold is suffering from the general exodus out of commodity investments,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S in Copenhagen, said by e-mail. “Being one of the most- traded commodities through ETF’s, the selling pressure from paper investors has been felt particularly hard and gold’s safe- haven status has suffered.”Gold will face a tough challenge at the start of 2016 and prices may drop toward the $1,000 level before recovering toward $1,200 by the end of the year as the dollar and bond yields retreat, Hansen said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ranjeetha Pakiam in Singapore at rpakiam@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jason Rogers at jrogers73@bloomberg.net Keith Gosman, Jake Lloyd-Smith