Gold hits 3-week peak as equities ditched on Trump worries

By Zandi Shabalala

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold climbed to a three-week high on Wednesday as the dollar fell to near six-week lows and bond yields sank on uncertainty over the economic policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Spot gold was up 0.3 percent at $1,248.68 an ounce by 1453 GMT, close to the session high of $1,250.51.

A lack of concrete policy from the Trump administration is increasing gold's attraction as a safe-haven investment, analysts and traders said.

"It seems that equity investors decided to take some money off the table, perhaps getting slightly wary about the progress in President Trump's legislative agenda," INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said.

U.S. gold futures rose 0.2 percent to $1,249.20.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was down 0.2 percent at a six-week low of 99.609, its weakest since Feb. 3.

Gold was also supported by a further drop in U.S. Treasury yields, with the 10-year benchmark yield dipping below 2.4 percent for the first time since March 1.

Gold has rallied nearly $50 from last Wednesday's low and clocked its longest winning streak since early January after a less hawkish tone on interest rates in the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest policy statement.

"The repositioning of investors since the (Fed) meeting continues unabated, with investors becoming less bearish as a result of the subdued outlook for rates in 2018," ANZ analysts said in a note.

Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.5 percent to 834.40 tonnes on Tuesday after three sessions of outflows.

In other precious metals, spot silver slipped 0.2 percent to $17.52 an ounce, having hit a more than two-week high of $17.59 in the previous session.

Platinum fell 0.6 percent to $970 and palladium eased also by 0.6 percent to $790 after hitting its highest in more than a month at $793.30.

(Additonal reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman and Dale Hudson)