(RTTNews) - The price of gold was extending gains for a second session Tuesday morning amid weak economic data from the euro zone.
Gold for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, added $23.30 to $1,781.30 an ounce. Yesterday, gold snapped its 2-day losing streak to end higher as the U.S. dollar came under heavy pressure.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, were unchanged at 1,260.17 tons.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar was paring previous session's losses versus the euro and sterling after data revealed weak economic growth in the euro zone. The buck was ticking lower against the yen and the Swiss franc.
In economic news, euro zone economic growth slowed more than expected in the second quarter as the German economy remained practically stagnant amid worsening debt troubles in the region. GDP rose 0.2 percent quarter-on-quarter, markedly slower than the 0.8 percent expansion in the first three months of the year, data from the Eurostat showed. The growth rate was also slightly weaker than the expected 0.3 percent.
The German GDP grew 0.1 percent on a quarter-on-quarter basis, after adjusting to seasonal variations. This followed a downwardly revised 1.3 percent expansion in the first quarter. Economists were expecting 0.5 percent increase.
Elsewhere, the prices of silver and platinum moved up in morning deals.
In economic news from the U.S, the Commerce Department will release its housing starts report at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect housing starts to come in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 600,000 in July after rising to 629,000 in June.
