Gold futures little changed in rangebound trade ahead of Fed

               Gold prices were little changed on Wednesday, as market players looked ahead to the conclusion of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting later in the day.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for December delivery traded at USD1,345.10 a troy ounce during European morning trade, down 0.03%. 

Prices traded in range between USD1,338.70 a troy ounce, the daily low and a session high of USD1,348.40 a troy ounce. 

The December contract ended 0.5% lower on Tuesday to settle at USD1,345.10 a troy ounce.

Gold futures were likely to find support at USD1,329.50 a troy ounce, the low from October 23 and resistance at USD1,361.70, the high from October 28.

The Fed is scheduled to conclude its two-day policy-meeting later Wednesday, with market analysts expecting the central bank to keep its USD85 billion-a-month asset-purchase program on track in order to safeguard the faltering economic recovery.

Data released on Tuesday showed that U.S. consumer confidence dropped to a six-month low of 71.2 in October from a reading of 80.2 in September, as concerns over the U.S. government shutdown and the debt ceiling crisis weighed.

The U.S. was to release data on private sector payrolls later Wednesday, ahead of the U.S. employment report for October, due for release on November 8.

Gold traders have closely been looking out for U.S. data reports recently to gauge if they will strengthen or weaken the case for the Fed to reduce its bond purchases.

Prices of the precious metal have largely tracked shifting expectations as to whether the Fed would start tapering its USD85-billion-a-month asset-purchase program by the end of the year.

Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for December delivery rose 0.85% to trade at USD22.68 a troy ounce, while copper for December delivery rallied 1.2% to trade at USD3.317 a pound. - investing.com