Investing.com - Gold futures held steady on Tuesday as investors remained in standby mode ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve's June policy meeting minutes on Wednesday, with many hoping for clues on monetary stimulus programs and rate-hike timetables.
Loose monetary policies tend to bolster gold's appeal as a hedge to weaker currencies.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for August delivery traded at 1,317.50 a troy ounce during U.S. trading, up 0.04%, up from a session low of $1,314.40 and off a high of $1,325.70.
The August contract settled down 0.27% at $1,317.00 on Monday.
Futures were likely to find support at $1,312.10 a troy ounce, Monday's low, and resistance at $1,334.90, the high from July 1.
The Federal Reserve will release the minutes from its June policy meeting on Wednesday, and investors avoided the both the greenback and gold ahead of time, as uncertainty persists as to what the U.S. central bank will do with interest rates next year.
While the labor market has shown some signs of improvement, markets remain unclear as to how much time will pass from when the Fed will wrap up stimulus programs and when it will begin hiking benchmark interest rates.
U.S. Treasury yields edged lower on Monday due to the ambiguity, which steadied gold prices.
The yield on the U.S. 10-Year Treasury note fell to a one-week low of 2.57% on Tuesday due to concerns that the Fed will remain dovish on interest rates despite improvements taking place in the labor market.
Last week, the Department of Labor reported that non-farm payrolls rose by 288,000 in June, easily surpassing expectations for an increase of 212,000.
Meanwhile, silver for September delivery was up 0.07% at $21.028 a troy ounce, while copper futures for September delivery were down 0.08% at $3.259 a pound.