Investing.com -- Gold prices drifted lower again on Tuesday but remained essentially range-bound amid the latest reiteration of rumors around the status of U.S.-China trade talks.
With the Thanksgiving holiday nearly upon the U.S., major breakthroughs seem unlikely.
White House advisor Kellyanne Conway poured cold water on Chinese claims that a deal was close by telling Fox News that there are still big obstacles in the way.
“Forced technology transfers, the theft of intellectual property, the trade imbalance of a half a trillion dollars a year with the world’s second largest economy, China — this makes no sense to people,” Conway said.
Overnight, the Chinese Commerce Ministry had said that the two sides had reached a "consensus" on how to resolve the remaining issues, but gave no further details.
Having risen strongly on Monday, the rally in risk assets tailed off on Tuesday - but not markedly enough to spur much new demand for havens. By the same token, comments late Monday from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that the "glass is more than half full" as regards the economic outlook underlined that there will almost certainly be no further easing of policy this year.
By 9:45 AM ET, gold futures for delivery on the Comex exchange were down 0.3% at $1,459.85 a troy ounce, while spot gold was down 0.1% at $1,453.78.
Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy as Saxo Bank, said in a weekly note that gold could come under more pressure in the short term as portfolio managers take profits on trades from earlier in the year, in the absence of new fundamental triggers.
"We maintain the view that the upside potential remains but that end of year profit taking leaves the market exposed to a potential deeper correction than the one already witnessed," Hansen said. If gold futures break the next support at $1,448, then the next important level would be around $1,415, he added - a 50% retracement of the June-September rally.
Elsewhere, Silver futures held just above $17.02 an ounce while platinum futures were up 0.4% at $903.90 an ounce.