(RTTNews) - The price of gold moved down Wednesday morning as the dollar was steady after the Federal Reserve failed to hint on further monetary easing measures.
Gold for August delivery, the most actively traded contract, shed $10.40 to $1,579.10 an ounce. Yesterday, gold ended marginally lower after the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke addressing lawmakers failed to provide any clear hint of further quantitative easing that investors anticipated.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, were unchanged at 1,266.11 tons.
This morning, the U.S. dollar was hovering near its 2-year high versus the euro, while ticking higher against sterling. The buck was trading lower versus the yen and moving higher against the Swiss franc.
In economic news from the euro zone, Bank of England policymakers raised the size of economic stimulus by GBP 50 billion this month through a split vote as two members opposed the move, the minutes of the meeting revealed today. Members also plan to examine possibilities of cutting the benchmark interest rate below 0.50 percent, after assessing the impact of new measures.
Meanwhile, British unemployment rate declined in the quarter to May, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics showed. The ILO unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent in March-May from a revised 8.3 percent in the three months through February. Economists expected the rate to remain unchanged from the February quarter's original figure of 8.2 percent.
The prices of silver and platinum were trading lower in morning deals.
From the U.S., the Commerce Department will come out with its report on housing starts and building permits at 8:30 am ET. Economists estimate housing starts for June to come in at 745,000, while building permits are expected to have slipped to 775,000.
