Gold prices eased Wednesday, at risk of logging a third straight decline, even as the dollar paused its latest run, which had landed the buck at levels last seen in December.
Inflation-wary financial markets could get fresh clues on the course of interest-rate hikes as the producer-price index for April is slated for release at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, followed by wholesale inventories numbers from March at 10 a.m.
June gold GCM8, +0.21% fell $1.20 to $1,312.30 an ounce. Prices are hovering just above the roughly two-month low grazed last week.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, -0.14% which measures the buck against six rivals, eased 0.1% to 92.97. A steeper buck tends to turn off investors using other currencies to dollar-priced gold.
Read: First-quarter global gold demand drops to lowest in a decade: report
Also see: Billionaire girds for stock-market crash by investing half his net worth in gold
Gold demand was tempered by the apparent risk-on reaction, for now, to the Iran developments. A rally in oil prices helped lift U.S.-listed energy companies, which pushed stock-index futures higher. Initially on Tuesday, both West Texas Intermediate oil CLM8, +2.84% the U.S. benchmark, and Brent LCON8, +3.05% futures, the international benchmark, sold off after the Iran announcement. Trump said the U.S. intends to impose sanctions on Iran, curbing the country’s oil exports and tightening global oil supply.
Traders returned to the two benchmarks on Wednesday because fresh sanctions on Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a major oil producer, could mean disruptions in Middle East oil output—a scenario that is bullish for oil prices.
Read: Why oil prices didn’t rally after Trump announced ‘powerful’ Iran sanctions
In other metals trading, July silver SIN8, +0.93% rose 0.1% to $16.495 an ounce, while July copper HGN8, +0.08% changed hands at $3.0615 a pound, up nearly 0.1%. July platinum PLN8, +0.54% rose 0.3% to $914.40 an ounce, while June palladium PAM8, +0.93% added 0.3% to $966.60 an ounce.
In ETF action, the SPDR Gold Shares GLD, +0.14% and the iShares Silver Trust SLV, +0.88% both traded 0.2% lower, while the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners GDX, +0.26% was down 0.5%.