WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures ended lower on Wednesday as equities gained on stimulus hopes and the dollar exhibited strength.
The yellow metal's loss was just marginal as uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, and tensions on the Korean peninsula and between India and China limited the advance of riskier assets.
The dollar index rose to 97.34, and despite paring gains subsequently, was still holding in positive territory at 97.15, up nearly 0.2% from previous close.
Gold futures for August ended down $0.90 at $1,735.60 an ounce.
Gold futures had ended with a modest gain of about 0.5% on Tuesday, after losing ground in the preceding two sessions.
Silver futures for July ended up $0.120 at $17.775 an ounce, while Copper futures for July moved up by about 1% to $2.5895 per pound.
In economic news, a report from the Commerce Department showed new residential construction in the U.S. showed a notable rebound in the month of May, jumping by 4.3% to an annual rate of 974,000, after plummeting by 26.4% to a revised rate of 934,000 in April.
Economists had expected housing starts to soar by 22.9% to a rate of 1.095 million from the 891,000 originally reported for the previous month.
Meanwhile, building permits spiked by 14.4% to an annual rate of 1.220 million in May after plunging by 21.4% to a revised rate of 1.066 million in April.
Building permits, an indicator of future housing demand, had been expected to surge up by 14.3% to a rate of 1.228 million from the 1.074 million originally reported for the previous month.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX