The price of gold was little changed Wednesday morning amid a steady US dollar and rising global equity markets.
Gold for April delivery, the most actively traded contract, edged down $0.30 to $1,574.60 an ounce. Yesterday, gold settled marginally higher tracking rising global equity markets as economic growth concerns eased and with the dollar weakening against some major currencies. While gold prices benefited amid speculations of a possible rate cut in Europe this week, the precious metal pared some gains after an upbeat service sector data from the U.S., with China reaffirming its growth target for the year.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, moved down from 1,253.28 tons to 1,244.86 tons, levels not seen since early November 2011.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar was hovering around its 2-month high versus the euro and its 30-month high against sterling. The buck was trading around its two-and half year high versus the yen and ticking higher against the Swiss franc.
In economic news, the eurozone economy contracted 0.6 percent quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter, the latest figures from Eurostat confirmed. This was the steepest rate of contraction since the first quarter of 2009, data showed. The latest figure matched the preliminary estimate. In the third quarter, the economy contracted 0.1 percent.
Elsewhere, the prices of silver and platinum were moving higher in morning deals.
From the U.S., the ADP is due to release its report on private payrolls for March at 8:15 a.m. ET. Economists expects an addition of 173,000 jobs in March compared to 192,000 in the previous month.
