Gold hit a near-three year low on Wednesday, falling for a seventh session out of eight, as strong US economic data boosted stocks and supported the Federal Reserve's plan to scale back its bond purchases in the next few months.
Bullion prices have been sliding since Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke laid out a strategy last Wednesday to wind down the bank's USD 85 billion monthly bond purchases on the back of a recovering economy.
Spot gold fell 1.4 percent to USD 1,258.54 an ounce by 0202 GMT. Gold for immediate delivery fell to USD 1,254.74 earlier - its lowest since September 2010, while Comex gold also fell to a near 3-year low of USD 1,254.6.
Gold's losses since the beginning of last week through Tuesday amount to 8 percent, or about USD 113 per ounce.
"We've pushed past the USD 1,270 level seen last week. That's a key technical level so we are going through a whole bunch of stop losses," said Victor Thianpiriya, commodities analyst at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group.
Silver fell over 2 percent to its lowest since August 2010.
The Fed said it would wind down bullion-friendly bond purchases from later this year, and end purchases by mid-2014 depending on the economic recovery.
Data on Tuesday showed US consumer confidence jumped in June to its highest level in more than five years, while sales of new U.S. single-family homes rose to their highest level in nearly five years in May.
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