Gold fell further below a five-month high on Thursday, hurt by profit-taking ahead of the European Central Bank’s decision on stimulus measures, and strength in Asian equities that dented the metal’s safe-haven appeal. Market expectations are sky-high for the ECB to unveil a large-scale programme of quantitative easing – printing money to purchase sovereign bonds – resorting to its last big policy tool for breathing life into the flagging euro zone economy and fending off deflation. The stimulus measures should increase demand for bullion, but gold could have already priced in the ECB factor.