25.08.202119:00:00UTC+00Gold Futures Slip After Recent Gains, Settle Notably Lower

After three successive days of gains, gold futures settled lower on Wednesday as the dollar stayed a bit firm with traders looking ahead to the upcoming Jackson Hole Symposium.

At the annual Jackson Hole central bankers monetary-policy symposium, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is likely to indicate when the bank might start tapering its bond-buying program.

The dollar index advanced to 93.13 in the European session, but pared gains subsequently and slipped into the red by mid afternoon. It was last seen at 92.82, down marginally from the previous close.

Gold futures for December ended down $17.50 or about 1% at $1,791.00 an ounce, recording their biggest single-day drop in percentage terms in about two weeks.

Silver futures for September ended lower by $0.119 or 0.5% at $23.775 an ounce, while Copper futures for September settled at $4.2675 per pound, gaining $0.0095 or about 0.2%.

On the economic front, data released by the Commerce Department showed durable goods orders edged down by 0.1% in July following a 0.8% increase in June. Economists had expected orders to decrease by 0.3%.

Excluding a steep drop in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders climbed by 0.7%in July after rising by 0.6% in June. Ex-transportation orders were expected to increase by 0.5%.