Gold gains as bond yields slip, markets eye Fed minutes

GOLD - GOLD prices rose on Wednesday towards a three-week high scaled in the previous session, helped by a drop in U.S. Treasury yields, while investors awaited the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's June meeting for clues on policy outlook.

Spot gold was up 0.2% at $1,800.42 per ounce, as of 0251 GMT, after hitting its highest since June 17 at $1,814.78 on Tuesday.

U.S. gold futures rose 0.4% to $1,800.50 per ounce.

"A fall in treasury yields is certainly providing some support to gold, whilst we are also seeing some slight weakness in the U.S. dollar during early morning trading, which will also help," said ING analyst Warren Patterson.

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Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields were pinned near their lowest in more than four months. Lower bond yields reduce the opportunity cost of holding non-interest bearing gold.

The dollar index was slightly lower at 92.515 following a 0.4% gain in the previous session.

Market participants are now awaiting minutes from the Fed's latest meeting, due at 1800 GMT, which could shed more light on the interest rate trajectory after a hawkish tilt by the U.S. central bank last month.

"I suspect that these (minutes) will just confirm the Fed is becoming relatively more hawkish, so (we) could see gold trading lower as a result," ING's Patterson said.

Gold is highly sensitive to rising U.S. interest rates, which increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.

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A survey showed U.S. services industry activity grew at a moderate pace in June, likely restrained by labour and raw material shortages, resulting in unfinished work continuing to pile up.

Elsewhere, silver was steady at $26.14 per ounce, palladium fell 0.3% to $2,783.73, and platinum slipped 0.5% to $1,086.49.