Gold was little changed but held above last week's 10-1/2-month low on Wednesday as a retreat in the dollar from the previous session's 14-year peak prompted some buyers to hunt bargains after the metal's sharp slide from its November high. Bullion gave up earlier gains as the greenback came off session lows against a basket of six major currencies, while stocks edged down.
The metal had been hit hard by a surge in the dollar after the November 8 US elections, and a more hawkish tone from the US Federal Reserve after it hiked interest rates last week for only the second time in about a decade last month. Spot gold was down 0.06 percent at $1,131.11 an ounce by 2:30 pm ET (1930 GMT), after trading as high as $1,137.12. US gold futures for February delivery settled down 0.04 percent at $1,133.20 per ounce.
Gold is getting some support from moves in the wider markets, Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said. "The US dollar is slightly weaker and US bond yields are slightly lower as well," he said.
The Fed last week signalled three more rate increases next year. Gold is highly sensitive to rising US interest rates, which lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced. "Looking ahead, we think that there is a risk that the price of gold might fall further in the coming months as the Fed hikes rates more aggressively in response to some of Trump's more inflationary policies," Capital Economics said in a note. Hefty outflows from gold-backed exchange-traded funds of late have been pressuring gold, HSBC said in a note.
"Declines of 300,000 ounces reported Monday night are the latest in more than a month of consecutive gold ETF outflows," it said. Among other precious metals, palladium was down 1.05 percent at $657 an ounce, after touching a six-week low of $652.80. It remains the best performing precious metal this quarter, with a drop of just 9 percent, compared with a 14 percent drop in the price of gold and an 11 percent retreat in platinum. Spot silver was down 0.9 percent at $15.93, while platinum was 0.1 percent lower at $914.80.