Gold steady below $1,720

Gold prices held steady below $1,720 on Wednesday, as rekindled worries about Greece's debt crisis.

FUNDAMENTALS

• Spot gold edged down 0.1 percent to $1,716.79 an ounce by 0020 GMT.
• U.S. gold gained 0.4 percent to $1,718.90.
• Markets falldown on Tuesday. The Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou shocked the world by announcing plans to hold a bailout plan throwing hopes on solving Greece's debt crisis into trouble.
• French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold an emergency meeting with Greece on Wednesday to push for a quick implementation of Athens' bailout deal, the "only solution" to its debt crisis, Sarkozy said on Tuesday.
• A news conference by the U.S. Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke later in the day after a two-day policy meeting. The Fed looks set to take a breather from economic stimulus measures on Wednesday, even if financial market unstable heightens the chances of action later.
• Manufacturing surveys on Tuesday from North America to debt-crisis-hit Europe to Asia painted a portrait of softening global demand, but analysts do not see a world recession in the cards.
• MF Global -Holding Ltd failed to keep customer accounts, said a top U.S. exchange regulator, shock for commodity markets to run the brokerage's bankruptcy.