Investing.com - Gold prices held steady to weaker early Thursday in Asia as investors took note of the Federal Reserve's confidence on economic growth in the United States.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for December delivery were down 0.09% at $1,210.80 a troy ounce.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday ended its monthly bond purchase program and dropped a characterization of U.S. labor market slack as "significant" in a show of confidence in the economy's prospects.
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.
Silver futures for December delivery rose 0.06% at $17.085 a troy ounce. Copper futures for December delivery gained 0.18% at $3.085 a pound.