11-Oct (MarketWatch) — Gold futures edged lower Tuesday with strength in the U.S. dollar prompting the metal to give back some of the previous session’s gains as traders awaited a vote in Slovakia on changes to the euro zone’s rescue fund.

Gold for December delivery fell $4.70, or 0.3%, to $1,666.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices traded between a low of $1,655.40 and a high of $1,686.70.

“The yellow metal continues to move with the ebb and flow of hope that a real solution to the European debt/banking crisis will be forthcoming,” said Peter Grant, senior metals analyst at USAGold-Centennial Precious Metals Inc.

“Reports that the troika will likely be releasing the next tranche of bailout funds lifted the euro, and tempered some of gold’s recent safe-haven bid in earlier trading.,” he said in emailed comments.

But European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet’s “grim acknowledgment of the mounting systemic risks and worries” about the impending European bailout fund vote in Slovakia served to limit the downside,” he said.

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