Gold fell for a third day on Wednesday as investors switched to equities after the U.S. Federal Reserve vowed to keep interest rates low until 2014, while platinum prices held at premiums to bullion on lingering worries about supply disruption. Investors also ditched gold in favour of the dollar after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke offered no clues on whether there will be another round of monetary easing , which would offer support to bullion as a safe haven. Gold [XAU= 1647.3101 -27.44 (-1.64%) ] hit an intraday high at $1,681.95 before slipping to $1,671.19 an ounce, down $3.56. On Tuesday, it hit a low of $1,661.99, its weakest since late January. Bullion rose to a record of around $1,920 in September on fears the euro debt crisis could stall global growth. "Gold is just caught in a downdraft again after Bernanke didn't really talk about quantitative easing. But there is still this deep-seated theme of central bank buying and strong retail demand from emerging Asia, particularly China," said Nick Trevethan, a senior commodity strategist at ANZ in Singapore. "The bottom of the market is about $1,650 at the moment, but we won't rule out another stab at resistance at $1,700." Quantitative easing, or major asset purchases by the Fed, keeps interest rates and borrowing costs low, which in theory makes gold more attractive compared with yield- or dividend-bearing assets such as bonds or stocks. Platinum [XPT= 1676.49 -4.94 (-0.29%) ], rose $4.31 an ounce to $1,685.74 an ounce, having hit an intraday high $1,701.50. Platinum gained on worries about supply following a month-long stoppage at the world's second-largest producer Impala Platinum's largest facility, which the company said cost nearly 200,000 ounces in production and would probably cut deliveries in April by as much as 50 percent. U.S. April gold [GCCV1 1641.70 -52.50 (-3.1%) ], extended losses, falling more than 1 percent to $1,671.90 an ounce after upbeat U.S. economic data boosted investors' risk appetite. The Fed said the economy was "expanding moderately", although growth still faced significant downside risks. The assessment of the economy's expansion was unchanged from the Fed's January statement. Investors are now looking to the Fed's policy meetings in April and June for decisions about any new directions for policy. Shares in Asia rose on Wednesday as upbeat U.S. economic data plus signs of improving capital positions at big American banks stoked appetite for risk, while reduced expectations for more monetary easing by the Fed underpinned the dollar. Data in the United States once again indicated a slowly improving domestic economy, as retail sales recorded their largest gain in five months in February despite rising gasoline prices. "Gold has been caught in this kind of range for too long. If it continues like this, we will all turn into stones here," said a physical dealer in Singapore. "Personally, I believe the last round of sell-down has washed out the long bullish stakeholders, while those who are interested in taking new positions are not doing so because they expect the price to go even lower." In currencies, the dollar [.DXY 80.33 0.14 (+0.17%) ], eased from a seven-week high against a basket of major currencies of 80.320 hit on Tuesday, but touched a fresh 11-month high of 83.28 yen . The euro fell some 10 pips to $1.3070 , with support seen at $1.3054.

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