Gold Futures Slip From One-Month Highs

Gold futures slipped marginally on Wednesday, moving off highs reached in the previous session, ahead of a vote to increase the U.S. debt ceiling.

Gold for delivery in February  slipped 90 cents to $1,692.30 an ounce in Asia electronic trading hours.

The precious metal closed at its best level in more than a month on Tuesday, after rising $6.20, or 0.4%, to settle at $1,693.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The gains for the gold price Tuesday were made amid a weaker dollar, a decision to embrace looser policy from the Bank of Japan and some disappointing U.S. economic data.

The ICE dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six currencies, slipped to 79.871 from 79.892 in late North American trading on Tuesday. The weakness provided support to commodities denominated in the greenback.

Commodity strategists at Deutsche Bank said that markets are likely to be focused on what is expected to be the key event of week — a U.S. House vote on a proposal to defer the debt-ceiling debate to May under certain conditions.

“In the likely event that the proposal is not passed, we expect that the market could once again enter a ‘risk off’ period which could lead to preferential buying of the U.S. treasury bills and lead to a softening in gold prices over the near term,” the strategists said.

Across the wider metals complex, silver for March delivery rose 2 cents to $32.20 an ounce, while March copper slipped 1 cent to $3.69 a pound.

April platinum lost $6.50 to trade at $1,692.00 an ounce, while March palladium  fell $4.55 to $725.35 an ounce.

Marketwatch