NEW YORK -- Gold futures were slightly lower along with equities Wednesday as investors move into the U.S. dollar.
Participants are selling the euro and buying the greenback after a smaller-than-expected drop in U.S. private sector jobs.
In recent trading, April gold was down $4.50, or 0.4%, at $1,113.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
A stronger dollar often hurts dollar-denominated metals like gold by making them more expensive in other currencies.
Private-sector jobs in the U.S. fell by 22,000 in January, compared with the 30,000-job drop economists had expected, according to a national employment report published Wednesday by payroll giant Automatic Data Processing Inc. and consultancy Macroeconomic Advisers. The ADP survey tallies only private-sector jobs, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics' nonfarm payroll data, to be released Friday, include government workers.
Gold was also under pressure along with equities and other metals as investors had less of an appetite to take on perceived riskier assets, said Daniel Pavilonis, senior market strategist with Lind-Waldock.
While gold historically has been viewed as a hedge against risk because it isn't widely used in industry and so is less tied to business cycles, the metal has been trading as a risk play in recent months.
Mr. Pavilonis also said gold hit some resistance around $1,126.
