The gold price traced lower for a second consecutive day in early trading on Tuesday ahead of an expected further cut to US quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve. Spot gold was last $5.95 lower or about 0.4 percent lower at $1,360.15/1,360.95 per ounce, having traded as low as $1,357.15 earlier in the session. The market has largely ignored the Crimean referendum held over the weekend, which returned an overwhelming vote in favour of seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia. “With gold lower and risk assets stronger, it could be said that the old adage of ‘buy the rumour, sell the fact’ is proving largely true,� Bart Melek of TD Securities said. “After a poor week, base metals, equities and other risk assets are doing better and gold has dropped lower.� “Perhaps naively, the market is starting to believe that we have seen the worst of the Ukraine crisis after the US announced only modest sanctions against Russia,� he added. The bank now expects gold to trend lower, with base metals improving, but Melek also said that the price paths will not be smooth owing to choppy March data and the possibility of unexpected geopolitical developments. The LME-traded base metals opened on a weaker note on Monday before picking up, underpinned by stronger sentiment in equities and a lack of further fallout in copper. Copper was last at $6,478.50 per tonne, down fractionally on Monday’s close but up from the four-year lows seen last week. Range-trading is likely in gold ahead of the release of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement on Wednesday. The FOMC is widely expected to announce a further $10-billion reduction to its quantitative easing programme, which would then take the total easing to $55 billion per month. Also negative for gold was a return of risk appetite, with equities generally firmer. The Nikkei and the Hang Seng both trended firmer this morning. The dollar also firmed against the euro this morning, adding more than a tenth of a cent to 1.3912. In other precious metals news, European auto sales numbers soared eight percent in February, rising to 861,058 units compared with February 2013. The numbers should be particularly supportive for platinum, which is used in diesel engines prevalent in Europe. But the platinum price was down $12 today at $1,452/1,457 per ounce, while palladium slipped $5 to $765/770. The silver price fell 0.7 percent or 16 cents to $21.02/21.07 per ounce. - See more at: http://www.fastmarkets.com/bullion-desk-news/72681-0-en#sthash.OSOSAxed.dpuf

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