Investing.com - Gold prices slid to almost two-week lows on Wednesday, pressured lower by a firmer dollar.
Gold futures for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange were down 0.55% at $1,218.6 a troy ounce by 1:40 AM ET (05:40 GMT). The yellow metal has risen about 2.4% so far in October, the biggest monthly gain since January.
Upbeat U.S. economic data was said to be driving global equities and the dollar higher this week, as Chinese and Japanese stocks rose more than 1% on Wednesday, while the dollar traded 0.5% higher against a basket of other currencies.
The U.S. dollar index gained 0.5% to 96.82, hovering near 10-week highs.
The White House upped the ante against China this week, warning that it could impose by early December tariffs on all remaining Chinese goods entering the U.S. if talks next month between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping fail to ease their trade war. Washington has already imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, and China has responded with retaliatory duties on $110 billion worth of U.S. imports.
"If the dollar continues to march higher, especially against its emerging markets peers, this will put some pressure on gold," said Hussein Sayed, Chief Market Strategist at FXTM.
"As long as inflation doesn't become a real threat or equities plunge much further from current levels, many investors will prefer yielding instruments than investing in gold, and that's what the dollar is providing."