Gold steadied early Thursday as the U.S. dollar retreated from near 14-year highs touched against a basket of currencies the day before.
FUNDAMENTALS
Spot gold was up 0.22 percent at $1,227.56 an ounce at 0041 GMT. The metal dropped 0.25 percent in the previous session.
U.S. gold futures were up 0.3 percent at $1,227.40 per ounce.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, slipped 0.17 percent at 100.240.
The dollar index reached 100.57 on Wednesday, which was its highest since April 2003
U.S. manufacturing output increased for a second straight month in October amid gains in the production of motor vehicles and a range of other goods, suggesting that the battered factory sector was slowly recovering.
The Federal Reserve will hike U.S. interest rates in December barring any major shocks, policymaker James Bullard said on Wednesday, adding that a single rate increase may be enough to move monetary policy to a “neutral setting”.
The European Union effectively urged the German government to spend more in an election year as Brussels moved further away on Wednesday from its mantra of austerity, pushing for euro zone countries to loosen their budgets for 2017.
The Bank of Japan is encouraged by stock market gains and yen declines after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election because this could help improve sentiment and give the economy a boost, senior central bank officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 0.13 percent to 926.26 tonnes on Wednesday from 927.45 tonnes on Tuesday.
Some Indian gold traders are placing bulk, short-term import orders on fears that Prime Minister Narendra Modi might soon add curbs on overseas purchases of the metal to his withdrawal of high-denomination banknotes in his fight against ‘black money’, traders and jewellers said.

Source: Financial Express.