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Gold prices held ground on Wednesday on a weaker dollar amid uncertainties around the timing of a rate hike by the Federal Reserve and upcoming U.S. presidential election.

The dollar index was subdued on Wednesday as Treasury yields ticked lower after U.S. consumer prices suggested underlying inflation was moderating, prompting investors to trim bets on an interest rate hike later this year. The index .DXY was down 0.1 percent at 97.809, below Monday's seven-month high of 98.169.

Fed fund futures <0#FF:> imply around a 65 percent probability of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates by December, down from 70 percent before the CPI data.

Recent support for gold prices has had to do with the demand mostly from China and emerging markets, said Richard Xu, a fund manager at HuaAn Gold, China's top gold exchange-traded fund. "If you look at the Chinese local gold prices, they are roughly 2 percent higher than the global gold prices," Xu added. "The dollar is probably showing some kind of a weakness after pushing out so high, so that might also help the gold stabilise for a while."

"We remain relatively negative on gold short-term despite a stronger start to the week," INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said in a note. "We expect further dollar strengthening going into Q4 on account of an election victory for Hillary Clinton along with the likelihood of a Fed rate hike."

Reference: Reuters