Investing.com - Gold prices hovered steady in Asia on Wednesday with an eye on the dollar and events in the Ukraine.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for June delivery traded at $1,308.70 a troy ounce, up 0.01%, after hitting an overnight session low of $1,304.60 and off a high of $1,314.20.
In Europe, Eurostat, the European Union's statistical arm, reported that retail sales rose 0.3% in March, confounding expectations for a 0.2% contraction. Retail sales in February were revised down to a 0.1% gain from a previously estimated 0.4% increase.
The numbers sparked for demand for the euro as did upbeat Spanish jobless numbers, which sparked demand for risk that came at gold's expense.
Official data released earlier revealed that the number of unemployed people in Spain dropped by 111,600 in April, compared to expectations for a decline of 49,100, after a 16,600 fall the previous month.
Separately, the Markit Economics research group said that Spain's services purchasing managers' index rose to a six-year high of 56.5 last month, from a reading of 54.0 in March. Analysts had expected the index to tick up to 54.4 in April.
Italy's services PMI swung back into expansion territory last month, rising to 51.1 from a reading of 49.5 in March, beating expectations for an uptick to 50.4.
The euro zone's service-sector PMI came in unchanged at 53.1, in line with expectations.
Meanwhile in the U.S., data revealed that the country's trade deficit narrowed to $40.38 billion in March from $41.87 billion in February, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of $42.30 billion.
Analysts had expected the deficit to narrow to $40.30 billion in March, and while the lackluster data softened the dollar, the U.S. trade gap did narrow after all, which gave the dollar some support against the yellow metal.
Silver for July delivery was down 0.13% at $19.620 a troy ounce. Copper futures for July delivery were up 0.07% at $3.056 a pound.