Investing.com - Gold prices traded slightly below breakeven on Wednesday, weighed by a shift in sentiment towards riskier assets, as investors digested bullish comments from U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and awaited a tax reform update from the Trump administration.
Gold for June delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped $2.11, or 0.16%, to $1,265.18 a troy ounce by 13:33 EDT.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed Wednesday, that the tax reform plan would cut the business tax rate to 15 percent.
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s comments came ahead of an eagerly awaited update from President Donald Trump on his tax reform plan.
Expectations of a bullish tax reform plan, underpinned a recovery in the dollar, which weighed on dollar denominated gold.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose by 0.34% to 99.06 by 13:34 EDT.
Gold is sensitive to moves in the dollar – A rise in the dollar makes dollar-denominated assets such as gold more expensive for holders of foreign currency and thus, decreases demand.
Gold prices have been under pressure since pro-EU candidate Emmanuel Macron won the first round of the French presidential election.
Recent polls predict an easy victory for Emmanuel Macron in the runoff vote for the French presidency, scheduled for May 7.
Elsewhere, platinum fell 0.30% to $949.00 while silver futures dipped 1.31% to $17.42 a troy ounce.
Natural Gas soared 3.10% to $3.263 while copper rose 0.35% to $2.600.