Metals: Gold Rises On Weaker Dollar

Gold prices hovered near one-month highs Wednesday, supported by a weaker U.S. dollar and buying out of Asia.

Gold for August delivery rose 0.4% to $1,270.40 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The WSJ Dollar Index was recently down 0.2% at 88.54, making dollar-denominated metals like gold cheaper for foreign buyers.

"The dollar continues to be the swing vote on gold's short-term direction," said Peter Hug, global trading director at Kitco Metals, in a Wednesday note.

The safe-haven asset has gained in recent days amid political uncertainty and rising doubts about the Trump administration's ability to carry out major plans for policy reform and fiscal stimulus.

Meanwhile, copper swung between gains and losses amid mixed messages about the state of the Chinese economy. Futures for July delivery were recently near flat at $2.5645 a pound in New York.

Metals were hit after Chinese officials predicted further falls in demand for iron ore. Investors are already spooked by fears of a falloff in Chinese demand after being surprised last month by a drop of 0.5 in China's PMI metric.

Copper's Wednesday decline was cushioned by manufacturing PMI data for May, which remained at April's level of 51.2.

"This figure indicates that Chinese economic activity is stabilizing," Commerzbank said in a morning note.

Without that Chinese PMI figure, copper prices probably would have slid even further, said Nitesh Shah, a strategist at ETF Securities.

Another factor adding to the mild pressure on copper was the first increase in on-warrant stocks at London Metal Exchange-approved warehouses after seven consecutive declines. Available LME stocks rose by 2.5%, according to Marex Spectron.

Write to Stephanie Yang at stephanie.yang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 31, 2017 11:07 ET (15:07 GMT)