Investing.com - Gold prices traded lower on Wednesday as investors avoided the yellow metal ahead of the Federal Reserve's statement on monetary policy and interest rates.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for December delivery were down 0.37% at $1,224.80, up from a session low of $1,221.00 and off a high of $1,230.30.
The December contract settled up 0.01% at $1,229.40 on Tuesday.
Futures were likely to find support at $1,217.60 a troy ounce, the low from Oct. 10, and resistance at $1,235.50, Tuesday's high.
Many investors were betting that the Federal Reserve later Wednesday will announce plans to close its bond-buying program, which stands at $15 billion in Treasury and mortgage debt purchased each month.
The quantitative easing program aims to spur recovery by suppressing long-term borrowing costs with the hope companies raise capital to invest and hire, weakening the dollar as a side effect, thus making gold an attractive hedge.
An end to quantitative easing has largely been priced into trading, which softened gold prices ahead of the announcement even though weeks of hit-or-miss data have many investors uncertain as to when the Fed will hike is fed funds rate in 2015.
By Wednesday trading, many were expecting the U.S. central bank to reassure markets that interest rates will remain on hold for some time to come to make sure cooling European and Chinese economies don't drag on U.S. recovery, though gold remained lower on sentiments that loose monetary policies that have supported the yellow metal since the 2008 financial crisis are coming to an end no matter what.
Meanwhile, silver for December delivery was up 0.24% at $17.267 a troy ounce, while copper futures for December delivery were up 0.40% at $3.103 a pound.