Investing.com - Gold prices declined in North American morning trade on Wednesday, falling to the lowest levels of the session after data showed that private sector employers added much more jobs than expected in January.
Gold for April delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped $3.65, or around 0.3%, to $1,207.75 a troy ounce by 8:55AM ET (13:55GMT), after rallying $15.40, or about 1.3%, a day earlier.
Prices of the yellow metal rose to a one-week high of $1,217.40 on Tuesday.
Payroll processing firm ADP said non-farm private employment rose by 246,000 last month, easily surpassing forecasts for an increase of 165,000.
Besides the employment data, the ISM will publish its manufacturing survey for January at 10:00AM ET (15:00GMT).
Traders are also focusing on the outcome of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting for further clues on the timing of the next rate hike.
The U.S. central bank is expected to keep interest rates unchanged when it announces its decision at 2:00PM ET (19:00GMT) Wednesday, as policymakers await greater clarity on Trump's economic policies.
The Fed projected at least three rate increases for 2017. However, traders remained unconvinced. Instead, markets are pricing in just two rate hikes during the course of this year, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
In addition, headlines from Washington will continue to dictate market sentiment as traders focus on Trump for further details on his promises of tax reform, infrastructure spending and deregulation as well as trade policies.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.3% at 99.80 in New York morning trade, bouncing off the prior session's 12-week low of 99.40.
Also on the Comex, silver futures for March delivery inched down 7.0 cents, or 0.4%, to $17.46 a troy ounce, easing off the previous day's more than two-month high of $17.63.
Meanwhile, platinum tacked on 0.2% to $998.60, while palladium climbed around 1% to $761.45 an ounce.
Elsewhere in metals trading, copper futures dipped 1.1 cents, or 0.4%, to $2.717 a pound.
Futures rose to a 15-month peak of $2.738 earlier with investors watching developments surrounding a strike by workers in Chile at the world's largest mine.