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Gold was mostly unchanged in Asian trade on Wednesday after sliding to a two-month low in the previous session, despite a slightly weaker dollar. Spot gold was steady at $1,266.28 an ounce by 0352 GMT. The session before, it hit its lowest since Oct. 6 at $1260.71.
U.S. gold futures were up 0.3 percent at $1,268.60.
The dollar edged down on Wednesday, as concerns about a possible U.S. government shutdown offset optimism about progress on tax reform legislation.
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted on Monday to go to conference on tax legislation with the Senate, moving Congress another step closer to a final bill.
"Purely technically, gold is range-bound. We think the dollar strength is not going to last long," said Dominic Schnider at UBS Wealth Management in Hong Kong. "We do not think that Trump's tax reforms will create a long lasting boost to growth nor will they change our stance of two rate hikes next year," Schnider said.
"Gold stays under pressure in the short run as the market is repricing a little bit more Federal Reserve activity next year and the global economy is sparking an uptrend, earnings coming in well and the value for safe-haven assets like gold is diminishing."
The Fed is almost certain to raise interest rates next week at its final monetary policy meeting for the year, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
Gold is highly sensitive to rising U.S. interest rates, as these lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.
Meanwhile, holdings in the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, fell 0.17 percent to 845.47 tonnes on Tuesday.
Spot gold may break support at $1,262 per ounce, and fall to the next support level at $1,250, Reuters technicals analyst Wang Tao said.
Among other precious metals, silver was nearly unchanged at $16.10 an ounce, after hitting its lowest since mid-July in the previous session.
Platinum eased 0.1 percent to $915.10 an ounce, while palladium gained 0.6 percent to $988.20 an ounce.
(Reporting by Apeksha Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Joseph Radford)
© Reuters News 2017
U.S. gold futures were up 0.3 percent at $1,268.60.
The dollar edged down on Wednesday, as concerns about a possible U.S. government shutdown offset optimism about progress on tax reform legislation.
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted on Monday to go to conference on tax legislation with the Senate, moving Congress another step closer to a final bill.
"Purely technically, gold is range-bound. We think the dollar strength is not going to last long," said Dominic Schnider at UBS Wealth Management in Hong Kong. "We do not think that Trump's tax reforms will create a long lasting boost to growth nor will they change our stance of two rate hikes next year," Schnider said.
"Gold stays under pressure in the short run as the market is repricing a little bit more Federal Reserve activity next year and the global economy is sparking an uptrend, earnings coming in well and the value for safe-haven assets like gold is diminishing."
The Fed is almost certain to raise interest rates next week at its final monetary policy meeting for the year, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
Gold is highly sensitive to rising U.S. interest rates, as these lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.
Meanwhile, holdings in the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, fell 0.17 percent to 845.47 tonnes on Tuesday.
Spot gold may break support at $1,262 per ounce, and fall to the next support level at $1,250, Reuters technicals analyst Wang Tao said.
Among other precious metals, silver was nearly unchanged at $16.10 an ounce, after hitting its lowest since mid-July in the previous session.
Platinum eased 0.1 percent to $915.10 an ounce, while palladium gained 0.6 percent to $988.20 an ounce.
(Reporting by Apeksha Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Joseph Radford)
© Reuters News 2017
