By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures edged lower Wednesday, holding to losses after data showed flat U.S. retail sales in August.
Gold for December delivery GC1Z -0.47% declined $3.40, or 0.2%, to $1,827.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gold rose 0.9% the previous session, as an early-week dip of nearly 2.5% enticed bargain hunters back to the market.
Market participants are likely reluctant, however, “to enter large bets in gold before Thursday’s [consumer inflation] numbers on both sides of the Atlantic,” and, more importantly, ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee’s two-day meeting next week, analysts at VTB Capital said in a note to clients Wednesday.
The metal has “decent” support at $1,800 but the market could “stall here for now,” they added. On the upside, price resistance hovers around $1,910 an ounce, the analysts said.
Retail sales were steady in August with consumers spending on essentials such as gas stations and grocery stores but less on cars and clothing. Read more about retail sales data.
Providing some floor for gold prices are the simmering concerns about Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis.
Greece is moving towards a default and investors fear a domino effect to other countries in the euro zone.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou are scheduled to hold a conference call late Wednesday afternoon as Greece is under pressure to implement further austerity measures in an effort to meet deficit targets. Read more about the latest with Greece's crisis.
The dollar index DXY -0.01% , which compares the U.S. unit to a basket of six currencies, traded at 77.014 from 76.925 in late North American trade on Tuesday.
