Gold Ends Marginally Lower Ahead Of Fed Policy Meet

(RTTNews) - Gold futures ended a tad lower on Monday, ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meet, even as the dollar traded higher against a basket of major currencies. With all pointers indicating the Fed unlikely to cut its monthly bond-buying program on some recent downbeat data, gold prices found support to keep the losses at a minimum.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is all set to review and assess its economic policy in a two-day meet starting October 29, with analysts anticipating the central bank to maintain its $85 billion monthly asset purchase program intact.

In economic news, pending home sales in the U.S. unexpectedly tumbled to a nine-month low in September, a report from the National Association of Realtors showed Monday. Meanwhile, U.S. industrial production rose more than expected in September, with utilities output showing a substantial rebound, a Federal Reserve report said.

Gold for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, edged down $0.30 to close at $1,352.20 an ounce Monday on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold for December delivery scaled an intraday high of $1,361.80 and a low of $1,346.10 an ounce.

Last week, gold gained nearly 3 percent to settle near a 5-week high as the dollar trended lower against some major currencies after some soft jobs data out of the U.S. strengthened investor expectations the Federal Reserve would likely continue to maintain its $85 billion monthly quantitative easing program, with no cuts in the near future.

Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, moved down to 872.02 tons from 876.52 tons.

The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. unit against six major currencies, traded at 79.31 on Monday, up from 79.21 late Friday in North American trade. The dollar scaled a high of 79.38 intraday and a low of 79.15.

The euro traded lower against the dollar at $1.3791 on Monday, as compared to its previous close of $1.3807 late Friday in North America. The euro scaled a high of $1.3817 intraday and a low of $1.3776.

In economic news from the U.S., the Federal Reserve said industrial production rose by 0.6 percent in September following a 0.4 percent increase in August. Economists had been expecting production to show another 0.4 percent increase. Utilities output surged up by 4.4 percent, while mining and manufacturing output edged up by 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, pending home sales in the U.S. unexpectedly showed a substantial decrease in the month of September, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors. NAR said its pending home sales index tumbled 5.6 percent to 101.6 in September from a downwardly revised 107.6 in August. Economists had expected pending home sales to come in unchanged.

Elsewhere,, a leading indicator of euro zone's economic activity continued to rise in September, suggesting moderate positive growth for the economy in 2014, the Conference Board said. The leading economic index rose 0.5 percent from a month earlier in September to 109.6. This followed a 1 percent rise in August and a 0.9 percent increase in July.