Investing.com - Gold prices were higher on Wednesday, but held close to their lowest level in six-weeks, as investors continued to track progress made by U.S. lawmakers to pass a bill that will overhaul the American tax system.
Friday's deadline on a possible government shutdown will also be on investors' minds.
Comex gold futures were at $1,270.80 a troy ounce by 3:10AM ET (0810GMT), up $6.00, or about 0.5%, from the last session's closing price. It touched its lowest level since Oct. 6 at $1,263.20 a day earlier.
The yellow metal lost 1% on Tuesday as strength in the U.S. dollar weighed on the metal’s haven appeal.
Besides politics, investors also looked ahead to key U.S. economic data due later in the session for fresh clues on the likely trajectory of monetary policy in the months ahead.
The highlight of Wednesday's economic calendar will be the ADP jobs report at 8:15AM ET (1315GMT), which is often seen as a warmup act for the big Friday government nonfarm payrolls report, which would be the last employment report before the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week.
The U.S. central bank is scheduled to hold its final policy meeting of the year on Dec. 12-13, with interest rate futures pricing in a 100% chance of a rate hike at that meeting, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool. However, markets appeared doubtful over the central bank's ability to raise rates as much as it would like next year due to concern over the sluggish inflation outlook.
Gold is highly sensitive to rising rates, which lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.
In other metals trading, silver futures tacked on 8.0 cents, or 0.5%, to $16.15 a troy ounce, after hitting its lowest since mid-July in the previous session.
Platinum was down 0.2% at $915.55, while palladium inched up 0.4% at $981.05 an ounce.
Meanwhile, copper futures rose 1.6 cents, or 0.5%, to $2.962 a pound. Futures plunged 4.6% to their weakest level since Oct. 3 in the last session as concerns over demand in top consumer China pushed investors to sell the red metal.