Gold prices edged lower in North American trading on Wednesday, as demand for safe-haven assets eased amid a recovery in the dollar and global equities.
Comex gold futures shed $9.60, or around 0.8%, to $1,284.50 a troy ounce by 9:35AM ET (13:35GMT). Meanwhile, spot gold was down $6.60 at $1,282.90.
The yellow metal settled higher for the fifth session in a row on Tuesday after hitting its strongest since early November at $1,297.40 at the start of the week.
Also on the Comex, silver dipped 5.2 cents, or about 0.3%, to $18.22 a troy ounce. It touched its highest since November 11 at $18.65 on Monday.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six rival currencies, edged up 0.2% to 99.62, pulling away from Tuesday’s low of 99.36, its deepest trough since March 28.
Meanwhile, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was at around at 2.21%, after falling to a low of 2.165% Tuesday, the lowest since November 10.
Gold has been well-supported in recent sessions as market players sought shelter in safe-haven assets ahead of the upcoming French presidential election on Sunday and amid heightened geopolitical tension between the U.S. and North Korea.
Reduced expectations for a Federal Reserve rate hike in June in wake of recent weakness in U.S. economic data further burnished the appeal of the yellow metal.
Futures traders are pricing in around a 40% chance of a hike at the Fed’s June meeting, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool, down from around 60% last week.
Elsewhere in metals trading, platinum inched up 0.1% to $979.40, while palladium tacked on 0.5% to $774.85 an ounce.
May copper futures gained 1.9 cents to $2.549 a pound, bouncing back after touching a three-month low of $2.515 in the prior session, on concern over a slowdown in demand from China.
