Gold drops in New York

Gold prices moved lower on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday with equities lower on Wall Street. Equities dropped after the Commerce Department said the gross domestic product contracted 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. But losses were muted by a positive jobs report from Automatic Data processing. The U.S. Federal Reserve announced it would maintain its monetary policy, noting the recovery "paused in recent months." NYMEX gold gave up 0.29 percent or $4.80 to $1,676.80 per troy ounce. NYMEX silver lost 0.61 percent or 20 cents to $31.98 per ounce. Against the dollar, the euro rose to $1.3566 from Tuesday's $1.3492. The dollar rose to 91.08 yen from Tuesday's 90.73 yen.