By Myra P. Saefong
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures edged lower Wednesday to give back part of the previous session's gains, while crude-oil prices headed higher, poised to extend a two-session climb. Gold for February delivery GC2G -0.59% was down $4, or 0.3%, at $1,613.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. On its first full day as a front-month contract, February crude oil CL2G +0.19% traded at $97.68 a barrel on Nymex, up 44 cents, or 0.5%. The European Central Bank on Wednesday offered to loan $641 billion to 523 euro-area banks in a three-year funding program. Gold is lower "on year-end book tidying and hopes that the ECB's new lending program may help improve the European debt crisis," said Mark O'Byrne, executive director at GoldCore.
