By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Gold prices hovered around the flat line during European trading hours on Wednesday, while the broader metals complex found support in a weaker dollar.
Gold for December delivery GCZ2 -0.10% slipped 20 cents, or less than 0.1%, to $1,724.60 an ounce.
The decline built on a $6.10 loss from Tuesday, when worries over Greece’s next bailout installation sent the euro lower against the dollar, pressuring dollar-denominated commodities.
A weaker dollar, however, helped curb losses for gold in Wednesday’s trade, as the ICE dollar index DXY -0.09% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six rival currencies, fell to 80.996 from 81.097 in late trade the prior day.
A weaker dollar makes commodities priced in the U.S. currency more appealing to other currencies holders.
Other financial markets showed diverging trends, with U.S. stock futures pointing to a higher open on Wall Street, while bourses declined in Europe. See: Stock futures up on Yellen; retail sales awaited and See: Europe stocks wobble, U.S. fiscal fears weigh
Other metals eked out gains, with copper for December delivery HGZ2 +0.07% up 0.4% to $3.48 a pound and palladium for the same month PAZ2 +0.39% 0.5% higher at $639.95 an ounce.
December silver SIZ2 -0.05% inched 1 cent higher to $32.49 an ounce.
Platinum for January delivery PLF3 +0.01% rose 0.2% to $1.588.90 an ounce. Johnson Matthey’s Platinum 2012 Interim Review said on Tuesday that the platinum market likely will see a deficit of 400,000 ounces due partly to recent mining strikes in South Africa.
Sara Sjolin is a MarketWatch reporter, based in London.
