Gold dipped in early Asia on profit-taking

Gold dipped in early Asia on profit-taking, but remained well supported as events surrounding Greece's debt talks hang in the balance.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold for August delivery fell 0.11% to $1.200.70 a troy ounce.

Silver for July delivery rose 0.02% to $16.157 a troy ounce.

Copper for July delivery fell 0.05% to $2.606 a pound.

Overnight, gold futures surged more than $25 an ounce on Thursday attaining its strongest one-day move in more than a month, as traders digested relatively dovish comments from the Federal Reserve on the timing of an interest rate hike and the Greek Debt crisis remained in focus.

Metal investors piled into gold on Thursday, one day after the Federal Open Market Committee declined to offer any explicit wording on when it might lift its benchmark Federal Funds Rate for the first time since June, 2006. During its two-day June meeting that concluded on Wednesday, the FOMC upgraded its economic outlook in its Federal Funds Rate Target, otherwise known as its "dot plot."

While tempering its expectations for GDP growth for the remainder of the year, 10 members of the FOMC built in two quarter-point interest rate hikes for the remainder of 2015, down from 14 of 17 governors in March. Although the assessment signaled the clearest indication in months that the Fed will raise rates this year, it also increased the possibility that the U.S. Central Bank could wait until December, not September for lift-off.

Gold, which is not attached to dividends or interest rates, struggles to compete with high-yield bearing assets in periods of rising rates.