Gold steadies

Bengaluru

Gold held steady on Wednesday, after slipping in the previous session, as investors awaited cues on the U.S. Federal Reserve´s rate hike stance from the minutes of its last meeting.

Federal funds futures suggested traders saw about a 79 percent chance that the U.S. central bank would raise key short-term rates by a quarter point to 1.00-1.25 percent at its June 13-14 policy meeting , little changed from Monday´s close, CME Group´s FedWatch program showed.

Spot gold was nearly flat at $1,251.29 per ounce, as of 0434 GMT.

U.S. gold futures shed 0.3 percent to $1,251.2 an ounce.

"My expectations are that the pace of interest rate hikes will be kept steady and stable regardless of the short-term fluctuations in the U.S. economic data," said Mark To, head of research at Hong Kong´s Wing Fung Financial Group.