Gold futures snapped a five-day gain to end lower Wednesday, as investors awaited the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee policy meet which is due later in the day. The dollar continued to fluctuate while the euro weakened after Greece requested additional time to enforce the strict austerity measures proposed by its lenders.
Gold for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, slipped $2.40 or 0.2 percent to close at $1,640.50 an ounce Wednesday on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gold for December delivery traded at an intraday high of $1,647.60 and a low of $1,638.40 an ounce.
Gold ended at a three-month high yesterday as the dollar weakened while the euro strengthened on optimism over the eurozone with expectations that the European Central Bank would step up efforts to prop-up the weaker economies of the single currency bloc.
The euro traded lower against the dollar at $1.2470 on Wednesday, as compared to $1.2473 late Tuesday in North America. The euro scaled a high of $1.2487 intraday and a low of $1.2432.
The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. unit against six major currencies, traded at 81.93 on Wednesday, marginally up from 81.91 in North American trade late Tuesday. The dollar scaled a high of 82.12 intraday and a low of 81.82.
In economic news from the U.S., the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales rose 2.3 percent to an annual rate of 4.47 million in July from 4.37 million in June. Economists had been expecting existing home sales to climb to an annual rate of 4.50 million.
Earlier today, data out of Japan revealed a wider-than-expected trade deficit for July, with merchandise deficit widening to 517.382 billion yen in the month compared with forecasts for a shortfall of 270.0 billion yen following the downwardly revised 60.3 billion surplus in June
The Federal Reserve is due to release the minutes of its July 31st-August 1st meeting at 2 pm ET.
by RTT Staff Writer
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