Gold Settles Lower Ahead Of Fed Minutes

(RTTNews) - Gold futures snapped a two-day gain to end lower on Wednesday, ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's minutes of its April policy meet, while tracking rising global equity markets and a strengthening U.S. dollar.

While a likely fall in Chinese demand dragged down gold prices, concerns over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and sluggish global equity markets also limited losses.

Gold for June delivery, the most actively traded contract, gained $6.50 or 0.5 percent to close at $1,288.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday.

Gold for June delivery scaled an intraday high of $1,296.30 and a low of $1,286.30 an ounce.

Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, edged down to 780.19 tons from its previous close of 781.98 tons.

The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. unit against six major currencies, traded at 80.19 on Wednesday, up from its previous close of 80.04 late Tuesday in North American trade. The dollar scaled a high of 80.30 intraday and a low of 79.89.

The euro traded lower against the dollar at $1.3663 on Wednesday, as compared to its previous close of $1.3701 late Tuesday in North America. The euro scaled a high of $1.3723 intraday and a low of $1.3636.

In economic news, eurozone's consumer confidence rose more-than-expected in May to its highest level in nearly seven years, preliminary figures from the European Commission showed Wednesday. The consumer confidence index for the 18 nations came in at -7.1 as compared to -8.6 in April. Economists had forecast a score of -8.3.

British retail sales volume, including automotive fuel, grew 1.3 percent month-on-month in April, more than double the 0.5 percent rise in March, the Office for National Statistics said. The growth rate was forecast to ease to 0.4 percent from the originally estimated 0.1 percent rise. Growth in sales excluding automotive fuel accelerated to 1.8 percent from 0.1 percent, exceeding economists' consensus of 0.5 percent rise.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan left its monetary policy unchanged on Wednesday and raised its assessment of capital expenditure as the economy is expected to withstand the impact of sales tax hike.

Elsewhere, China's economy added 4.73 million jobs in the first four months of 2014, which was higher by 30,000 from the same period last year, the Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said Wednesday.