Investing.com - Gold futures traded slightly lower in Thursday's Asian session after the yellow metal posted a modest gain during Wednesday's U.S. session. Gold seemed to get a lift from news that President Obama had cut his Christmas vacation short to return to Washington, D.C. to get back to work on solving the fiscal cliff.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for February delivery slipped 0.2% to USD1,657.45. As of this writing, the session high is USD1,660.95 and the session low is USD1,654.05. Gold was likely to find support at USD1636.45 and resistance at USD1668.45.
Gold futures plunged 2.1% in the U.S. last week as policymakers left Capitol Hill for the Christmas holiday with no fiscal cliff resolution in place. Volume was light during Wednesday's session because London markets were closed in observance of the Boxing Day holiday.
President Obama plans to return to Washington on Thursday in order to take part in talks to avert the crisis ahead of the year-end deadline, the White House said late Tuesday. The House and Senate are also expected to reconvene later today. That is none too soon for wary investors because the fiscal deadline is rapidly approaching.
U.S. politicians have until January 1, 2013 to enact a fiscal solution or risk putting the world's largest economy at risk of another recession at hands of $600 billion in expired tax reductions and spending cuts.
Despite losing nearly 4% in December, gold is still up almost 5.5% for the year. That puts the yellow metal in position to notch its 12th consecutive gain. Most of gold's 2012 gains were accrued in the days leading up to the Federal Reserve's announcement regarding a third round of quantitative easing.
Elsewhere, Comex silver for March delivery added 0.33% to USD30.135 per ounce while copper for March delivery gained 0.31% to USD3.607 per ounce.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.