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• Gold slipped on Wednesday as the dollar firmed, with investors looking to minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest meeting for clues on the timing of interest rate hikes.

• Spot gold had dropped 0.2 percent to $1,233.41 per ounce by 0645 GMT, while U.S. gold futures fell 0.4 percent to $1,234.60. Spot gold dropped as much as 1 percent to touch a one-week low of $1,225.73 in the previous session.

"Although U.S inflation has risen, the expectation of a rate hike in March is not very high," said Jiang Shu, chief analyst at Shandong Gold Group.
"Since gold has only risen since the beginning of this year, the market has some hesitation in moving up further ... but still (prices) have some way to go up."

• Spot gold looks neutral in a range of $1,233-$1,240 per ounce, and an escape could suggest direction, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.
"We are relatively agnostic on the outlook for gold, with our 3-, 6-, and 12-month targets at $1,200, $1,200 and $1,250 an ounce respectively," Goldman Sachs said in a note.

"Our economists expect three rate hikes in 2017 and see the probability of a rate hike by June at 80 percent, and we see U.S. long dated real rates rising slightly, placing downward pressure on gold."

• Spot silver was firm at $17.95 an ounce.

• Citi Research has upped its 2017 gold-price forecast slightly, listing a full-year average below current prices but calling for an uptick in the short term.

The bank listed a full-year outlook of $1,180 an ounce, up from a $1,160 forecast listed in December. As of 8:43 a.m. EST, spot gold was at $1,229.10.

Citi listed “an upside bias in the short term on political tail risk and U.S. policy uncertainty.”

Gold rallied in January as the U.S. dollar weakened, Citi said.