Gold steady as dollar holds firm

Gold steadied on Tuesday as the dollar held firm ahead of a US Federal Reserve meeting, with the precious metal’s upside capped by strong US economic data that continues to underpin the greenback. The dollar index held above last week’s two months lows, with an expected Federal Reserve rate rise mostly priced in by traders. “Upside scenarios (for gold is if) the Fed sounds a bit more dovish, but there’s not a lot of room for that at the moment. US data hasn’t weakened and market positioning for rate hikes is not excessively hawkish compared to the Fed,” said Macquarie commodity strategist Matthew Turner.