Gold futures in New York slipped Wednesday on small speculator selling in holiday-thinned dealings, but scale-down trade buying helped trim the modest declines, trading sources said.
Currency moves also defined direction at times as players otherwise sat back to await key economic data later this week.
"The floor is the best seller and they are leaning on gold every time the euro dips," a floor trader said. "They were looking for stops (automatic stop-loss sell orders) underneath $467" an ounce.
Most-active December gold fell $2.20 to $467.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, moving from $470.10 to $466.30.
Estimated COMEX gold volume touched 13,000 lots by 10 am Spot gold slid to $464.10/464.80 an ounce, below Tuesday's New York close at $466.10/6.80. Bullion dealers fixed gold at $463.50 in London in the afternoon.
December silver was flat at $7.425 an ounce, in a range of $7.37 to $7.48. Spot silver rose to $7.36/7.39 from $7.37/7.40 previously. The fix was at $7.345.
January platinum was up $1 at $915.50 an ounce. Spot platinum fetched $913/918. December palladium lost 35 cents to $195.75 an ounce. Spot palladium was at $190/195.