Gold futures were little changed in early Wednesday trading as a weaker dollar increased the metal's investment appeal but better-than-expected U.S. economic data reduced gold's attractiveness. Orders for U.S.-made durable goods rose 3.4% in February, marking the first increase after six monthly declines and the biggest gain since December 2007, the Commerce Department reported. Providing support to gold, holdings in the largest gold exchange-traded fund hit a new record. Gold for April delivery was last down $2.80, or 0.3%, at $921 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The benchmark contract had jumped nearly $70 last Thursday to end near $960 an ounce, but has since fell about $35. "Increased risk appetite following the tackling of toxic assets and surprisingly strong economic data weighed further on precious metal sentiment," wrote James Moore, a precious metals analyst at TheBullionDesk.com. Gold could remain around $900 to $965 for the time being, he added, "with scrap sale curbing rallies while invest demand provides support." Holdings in the SPDR Gold Shares hit a new record of 1,124.99 tons Tuesday, up 10.7 tons from a day ago and 96 tons from a month ago, according to latest data from the fund. SPDR slid 0.1% to $90.82 in Wednesday' trading. The monthly durable-goods figures released by the Commerce Department, although extremely volatile, are seen as key leading indicators for tracking the path of economic growth. The gain in February did not seem to be a fluke or due to one factor. Many sectors posted gains. See full story. U.S. stocks rose, supported by the durable goods data. Rising stock markets tend to reduce gold's investment appeal. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled legislation Wednesday to give the Treasury Department authority to seize control of any financial institution whose collapse would threaten the U.S. economy. The plan is to avoid the kind of disasters that followed from the failure of Lehman Bros. and the taxpayer bailout of American International Group. On Tuesday, Geithner and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke called for broad new powers to regulate the nation's financial system, arguing that the $170 billion rescue of AIG and the outcry over its bonuses would have never happened if the government had the right regulatory system. In other metals, silver for May delivery fell 1.1% to $13.205 an ounce and April platinum rose 0.3% to $1,120.80 an ounce. The June contract for palladium lost 0.1% to $211.50 an ounce. May copper lost 0.9% to $1.79 a pound. Among metals-sector equity benchmarks, shares of Barrick Gold Corp. the largest gold mining company, rose 1.8% to $32.61, while South Africa's Gold Fields Ltd. lost 1.3% to $11.73, and Goldcorp Inc. gained 2% to $34.17. The Amex Gold Bugs Index which tracks the share prices of major gold companies, added 1.3% to 325.71. The iShares Gold Trust ETF fell 0.4% to $90.77, while the iShares Silver Trust ETF was down 1.6% at $13.04.

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