Gold steadied above the $1,300 Tuesday, as investors continued to weigh the global risks stemming from Israel-Gaza conflict and the destruction of Malaysian flight.
The yellow metal came under pressure earlier in Asia amid lingering outrage and uncertainty over the crash of Malaysian flight MH17, as the West raises pressure on Russia having a hand in downing of the plane on Ukraine-Russia border last week. On the other hand, investors weighed the risks of instability in the Middle East as Israel continued to pound Gaza overnight.
Spot Gold was down 0.50% at $1,306.10 an ounce as of 04:05 a.m. ET. The metal has traded in a range between $1,304.50 and $1,313.15, compared with the day`s open at $1,319.74.
The strength of the dollar against a six-currency basket was also behind the detorioration of the sentiment for bullion this morning, as investors remained focused on the US consumer prices data due at 02:30 a.m. ET.
A second month of surprising and visible pressure in the CPI could pull expectations forward for the Federal Reserve`s first rate hike.
The dollar index traded around the highest in five weeks. The USDIX set a session high of 80.73 and low of 80.48 before trading around 80.71 comarped with the day`s open at 80.58.