Gold eases as dollar gains, recession fears ebb

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Gold slipped on Wednesday as gains in the dollar and reduced recession fears on expectations of Russian gas supplies to Europe resuming soon dented safe-haven bullion’s appeal.

Spot gold was down 0.2 percen at $1,708.09 per ounce by 1126 GMT in rangebound trading. U.S. gold futures eased 0.3 percent to $1,706.40.

"Gold is being negatively impacted by the current 'risk on’ mood with very strong gains being seen in the equity markets,” independent analyst Ross Norman said. [USD/] [US/]

World shares hit a three-week high on strong U.S. corporate earnings and reduced worries over a possible recession.

"This is manifesting itself through large redemptions in the ETF market as institutional investors scale back bullion positions,” Norman added. [GOL/ETF]

Gold prices had a positive start to the week, after five straight weekly declines, as expectations of a full percentage point interest rate increase by the Fed started to fade. Higher rates dull appeal for non-yielding bullion.

But gold has not been able to fully capitalise on its safe-haven status recently, with prices declining over $350 since early March due to the Fed’s aggressive monetary tightening, and the dollar’s recent rally.

A stronger dollar makes greenback-priced bullion expensive for overseas buyers.

"It does seem at the moment that the attractive position for gold traders is to position themselves for a recovery as $1,650 to $1,700 appears to be a good medium term floor,” said David Jones, chief market strategist at Capital.com.

Meanwhile, British inflation in June accelerated to a 40-year peak, bolstering chances of a half-percentage-point Bank of England rate hike next month.

The European Central Bank policymakers are also considering a larger-than-expected 50-basis-point hike on Thursday.

Spot silver rose 0.2 percent to $18.77 per ounce, while palladium fell 0.8 percent to $1,860.21.

Platinum was little changed at $874.61.