Gold futures made modest moves in either direction on Wednesday, as a stable U.S. dollar and a pick up in yields for sovereign debt, one of the most influential headwinds for bullion, ticked higher.

A report on U.S. consumer prices also appeared to momentarily weigh on precious metals, with assets perceived as risky gaining some buoyancy following the release of the inflation data.

The U.S. CPI data for February showed inflation rising modestly, in line with expectations. Inflation rose 0.4 for the month, but with food and energy stripped out, the gain was 0.1. Headline CPI picked up to 1.7 from 1.4 on an annual basis while the core 12month increase dipped to 1.3 from 1.4.

Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade, said the data was somewhat underwhelming.

He said gold was massively oversold and expects prices to move up from here, but investors need to keep an eye on the 10 and 30year Treasury yields. If the yield begins to soar again, a likely scenario, we could see the influence of that on gold prices.

April gold on Comex  rose by a dime to 1,716.90 an ounce, following a 2.3 rise on Tuesday, which marked the biggest oneday dollar and percentage rise for a mostactive contract since Jan. 4, FactSet data showed. Prices on Monday had tumbled 1.2 to hit the lowest for the mostactive contract since April 3.

It would be a bit premature to call the bottom in gold here, analysts at Sevens Report Research wrote in Wednesdays newsletter. However, prices did come near…