Investing.com - Gold futures held steady on Wednesday, hovering near 18-week lows as a recent string of upbeat U.S. data dampened safe-haven demand, while markets eyed the release of addition U.S. economic reports later in the day.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold for August delivery traded at $1,245.00 a troy ounce during European afternoon trade, up 0.05%.
The August contract settled 0.04% higher on Tuesday to end at $1,244.5 a troy ounce.
Gold futures were likely to find support at $1,237.50 an ounce, the low from January 30 and resistance at $1,260.60, the high from May 30.
Investors were eyeing a string of U.S. economic reports to be released later in the day, after official data on Tuesday showed that U.S. factory orders rose 0.7% in April, beating expectations for a 0.5% gain, after an upwardly revised 1.5% increase in March.
The report came after the Institute for Supply Management corrected its May manufacturing data twice on Monday. The index was first corrected to 56.0 after being initially reported as 53.2, before being corrected for a second time to 55.4.
The upbeat data underlined the view that the U.S. economy was regaining traction after being slowed by unusually cold temperatures during the winter months.
The precious metal has been under heavy selling pressure recently as investors bet on strong economic growth in the U.S. during the second quarter.
Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for July delivery slipped 0.15% to trade at $18.735 a troy ounce, while copper for July delivery tumbled 1.44% to trade at $3.092 a pound.