Gold slips after Fed minutes show split outlook, data eyed

By Nithin ThomasPrasad and Vijaykumar Vedala

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Gold slipped on Thursday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's June meeting showed policymakers were split on the outlook for inflation and how it might affect the future pace of interest rate hikes.

The details of the June 13-14 meeting, at which the Fed voted to raise interest rates, also showed several officials wanted to announce a start to the process of reducing the Fed's large portfolio of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities by the end of August but others wanted to wait until later in the year.

Spot gold was off 0.2 percent at $1,224.24 per ounce at 0820 GMT. But the precious metal regained some lost ground after falling to an eight-week low of $1,217.14 on Wednesday.

"The Fed's comments and heightening tensions arising out of North Korea have helped gold prices to come up from Wednesday's lows," said Brian Lan, managing director at gold dealer GoldSilver Central in Singapore.

"However, the dollar has firmed and kept a cap on how far gold prices can go."

The United States cautioned it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea's nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska.

U.S. gold futures for August delivery rose 0.2 percent to $1,223.70 an ounce.

"With the dollar relatively steady and U.S. equities firm, we suspect that the short-term direction for gold will be lower still," INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said in a note.

Investors were also eyeing a slew of U.S. data due later on Thursday including the ADP employment report, ISM non-manufacturing PMI and weekly jobless claims for trading cues ahead of Friday's nonfarm payroll figures.

Among other precious metals, silver fell 0.4 percent to $15.99 per ounce, not far from Wednesday's six-month low of$15.84.

Platinum slipped 0.4 percent to $906.50 an ounce and palladium advanced 0.3 percent to $842.75 per ounce.

(Reporting by Nithin Prasad and Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Manolo Serapio Jr.)