Gold remained under pressure ahead of the latest set of minutes from the US Federal Reserve.
The price fell sharply Tuesday as two regional Fed presidents maintained a hawkish stance and pointed to June as the time for the US should start to raise interest rates.
With Chinese buyers on the sidelines due to the New Year holiday, few investors were willing to take a risk ahead of the Fed update.
More gains for equities added to the pressure on precious metals, while signs that the ceasefire in Ukraine may be holding took away another prop for the gold price.
Greece’s travails influenced stock prices. Increasingly the signs are for a compromise to be reached between the new government and the EU, which, at the very least, will mean six month a extension of the country’s aid package.
An hour into trading on Wall Street, gold was trading at US$1,207, down a couple of dollars and close to a six-week low.
Commerzbank added technical selling may also have accentuated the decline as gold, and also silver, fell beneath their 100-day moving averages.
Exchange traded funds have seen an uptick in sales recently, though not by high profile hedge fund manager John Paulson, the largest investor in SPDR Trust, itself the largest gold-backed fund,
Paulson & Co owned 10.23 mln shares at the of December, the latest quarterly filings showed, unchanged now for six quarters.
Silver eased lower to US$16.43, while platinum shed US$4 at US$1,170.
Major movers
Randgold Resources down 35p at 4,980p
Fresnillo down 1p at 835p
Anglo American up 4p at 1,239p