Investing.com - Gold prices were little changed in European morning trade on Wednesday, holding near the prior session's one-week high as market players looked ahead to the outcome of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting for further clues on the timing of the next rate hike.
Gold for April delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped $1.00, or around 0.1%, to $1,210.35 a troy ounce by 3:15AM ET (08:15GMT), after rallying $15.40, or about 1.3%, a day earlier.
Prices of the yellow metal rose to a one-week high of $1,217.40 on Tuesday.
The Fed is expected to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday in its first policy decision since President Donald Trump took office, as policymakers await greater clarity on his economic policies.
The central bank's latest policy decision is due at 2:00PM ET (19:00GMT). Fed Chair Janet Yellen is not due to hold a press conference.
The Fed projected at least three rate increases for 2017. However, traders remained unconvinced. Instead, markets are pricing in just two rate hikes during the course of this year, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Besides the Fed meeting, there is also ADP payrolls at 8:15AM ET (13:15GMT) and ISM manufacturing data at 10:00AM ET (15:00GMT).
In addition, headlines from Washington will continue to dictate market sentiment as traders focus on Trump for further details on his promises of tax reform, infrastructure spending and deregulation as well as trade policies.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.2% at 99.74 in European morning trade, remaining within sight of the prior session's three-month low of 99.40.
The greenback tumbled on Tuesday after Peter Navarro, Trump’s top trade adviser, called the euro "grossly undervalued.”
Also on the Comex, silver futures for March delivery inched down 4.1 cents, or 0.2%, to $17.50 a troy ounce, easing off the previous day's more than two-month high of $17.63.
Meanwhile, platinum tacked on 0.2% to $998.45, while palladium climbed around 1% to $761.45 an ounce.
Elsewhere in metals trading, copper futures were little changed at $2.729 a pound.
Futures rose to a one-and-a-half year peak of $2.738 earlier with investors watching developments surrounding a strike by workers in Chile at the world's largest mine.