US MIDDAY: gold eases

Gold eased on Wednesday as the dollar steadied on expectations the Federal Reserve will deliver no significant changes later in the day to its policy outlook, though global economic concerns might push back the timing of a rate rise. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is scheduled to release a statement at the end of a two-day meeting, and policymakers are likely to restate their "patient" approach to raising rates.
A dovish bias could support gold, a non-interest-bearing asset."The market has more or less priced in a rate hike this year so that is status quo and if the Fed statement surprises ...more on the dovish side and rate hike expectations are pushed back into the future, then gold could find some more support," Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said.
"If the Fed does not deliver any surprise at all, the impact on the gold price will be neutral ...and then the focus will turn to the US data next week, mostly on wage inflation." Spot gold was down 0.4 percent at $1,287.20 an ounce by 1507 GMT, trading in an $8 range. It hit a five-month high of $1,306.20 last week, before retreating on stronger risk appetite after the European Central Bank announced liquidity measures.
US gold futures were down $4.70 at $1,287.00 an ounce. The dollar rose 0.4 percent against a basket of currencies, having received a slight boost from a surprise monetary easing by Singapore. It fell on Tuesday when US data showed durable goods orders unexpectedly fell in December and business investment dropped for a fourth straight month.
With the United States readying for its first rate hike in nearly a decade, gold prices are forecast to fall for a third year in a row in 2015, a Reuters poll showed. In the near term, gold is unlikely to fall below $1,250 because of buying interest from the Chinese ahead of the Lunar New Year next month, said Howie Lee, an investment analyst at Phillip Futures. Gold imports from Hong Kong by top consumer China fell by nearly a third in 2014, although purchases were still the second highest on record at just over 813 tonnes. Among other precious metals, spot silver was up 0.1 percent at $18.03 an ounce. Palladium gained 1.3 percent at $786.00 an ounce while platinum was down 0.2 percent at $1,256.46 an ounce.