Gold prices dip as stock markets, dollar climb

Spot gold had fallen 0.1 percent to $1,270.40 per ounce by 0105 GMT, having hit its lowest since the end of last year at $1,265.90 in the last session.

U.S. gold futures were 0.1-percent lower at $1,272.50 an ounce.

Equity markets in Asia rose on Wednesday morning after positive earnings helped the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes to set record closing highs on Wall Street overnight, while oil retreated from near six-month highs.

The dollar hovered near a 22-month peak against its peers on Wednesday, after strong U.S. housing data further eased concerns of a slowdown in the world’s biggest economy.

Sales of new U.S. single-family homes rose to a near 1-1/2-year high in March, boosted by lower mortgage rates and house prices.

After China’s economy defied expectations that it would slow further in January-March, U.S. growth is expected to be 2.1 percent in the same period, although the range of analysts’ estimates was wider than usual at 1.0 to 2.9 percent.

U.S. GDP data is expected on Friday.

Public debt in Greece and Italy, the two most indebted countries in the eurozone, grew last year while the bloc as a whole saw its liabilities decrease, the European Union statistics office said on Tuesday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on Thursday in the Russian Pacific port of Vladivostok to discuss the international standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear program, a Kremlin official said.

SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 0.27 percent to 749.63 tonnes on Tuesday from 751.68 tonnes on Monday.

Agnico Eagle Mines is doubling down this year on Nunavut, Canada’s least developed territory, betting that the high-grade gold ores and slim competition there will offset the risks of digging in the remote location in the far north.