The price of gold was moving lower Tuesday morning, with the US dollar trading firm versus a basket of currencies amid a recent batch of upbeat macroeconomic data.
Gold for June delivery, the most actively traded contract, shed $7.90 to $1,426.40 an ounce. Yesterday, gold settled ended lower for a third straight session after some encouraging U.S. retail sales data ignited hopes of economic recovery and aiding the dollar to trade higher against some major currencies. Investors also weighed some mixed data out of China, which showed industrial production to have risen less than expected in April.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, were unchanged at 1,051.65 tons.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar was steady around its 5-week high versus the euro and hovering near its 3-week high against sterling. The buck was extending its 4-year high versus the yen, while trading around its 8-month high against the Swiss franc.
In economic news from the euro zone, confidence among German investors increased less-than-expected in May as worries over the poor economic situation in euro zone continued to weigh, results of a survey by the Centre For European Economic Research (ZEW) revealed. The ZEW indicator of economic sentiment rose marginally to 36.4 in May from 36.3 in April. This was notably below the score of 40 forecast by economists. The outcome was, however, better than in March, when the indicator fell by 12.2 points.
Euro zone industrial production growth accelerated more than expected in March, largely due to an increase in energy output. Industrial output advanced 1 percent month-on-month in March, Eurostat reported. The rate of growth was bigger than the 0.3 percent rise seen in February and the 0.5 percent growth forecast by economists.
Elsewhere, the price of silver was moving lower, while platinum was edging up in morning deals.
From the U.S., the Labor Department is set to release its report on import and export prices for April at 8:30 am ET. Economists estimate a 0.1 percent drop in exports compared to the previous month, while import prices may have fallen a steeper 0.5 percent.
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