Gold & Dollar Teeter – Totter

Wednesday gold futures won back, pushed by weakness in the U.S. greenback, which fell to a new low against the euro.

Gold for the delivery in June climbed up $16.30 to come at $948.30 an ounce on the Nymex.

The dollar remained under pressure against most major counterparts, notching a fresh low against the euro after mixed U.S. economic data. The euro was changing hands at $1.5957, after rising as high as $1.5977, according to FactSet Research data.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, fell 1% to 71.30.

In economic news, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday that U.S. home builders started the fewest homes in 17 years, as housing starts plunged 11.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 947,000 in March.

March's rate was the lowest for housing starts since March 1991. Starts were down 36.5% compared with March 2007. The starts figure was much lower than expected on Wall Street, where economists were looking for a drop to 988,000 annualized units.

Separately, the Labor Department reported that inflation rose in March, as energy and food costs gained. After virtually no change in February, the consumer price index in March rose 0.3%, matching estimates from analysts surveyed by MarketWatch.