The price of gold dipped to a fresh three-year low Wednesday morning after recent batch of upbeat economic data strengthened views that the US Federal Reserve would scale down its stimulus program. A number of brokers have also slashed their forecast for the gold price this week.
Gold for August delivery, the most actively traded contract, lost $45.20 to $1,229.90 an ounce. Yesterday, gold settled lower near a three-year low on a slew of upbeat economic data out of the U.S. with an uptick in durable goods orders and home sales in May, refueling concerns the Fed Reserve may soon make a move to cut its bond buying program. Meanwhile, the dollar strengthened against a basket of major currencies on cues from the encouraging macroeconomic data.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, moved down from 985.73 tons to 969.50 tons, the lowest since February 2009.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar was advancing toward its one-month high versus the euro, sterling and the Swiss franc, while trading flat versus the yen.
In economic news from the euro zone, German consumer confidence is set to improve in July, reports said citing results of a survey published by market research group GfK. The forward-looking consumer confidence index for July was at 6.8 compared with 6.5 in June. Economists had forecast the index to stay unchanged at the June level.
Elsewhere, the prices of silver and platinum were trading lower in morning deals.
From the U.S., the Commerce Department will release its final GDP estimate for the first quarter at 8.30 am ET. Economists expect GDP growth to be left unrevised at 2.4 percent.
