Gold continues to hover above $1,700 an ounce as traders look for drivers

Gold futures edged higher Wednesday but remained mired near the $1,700 an ounce level as traders look for a driver to push the yellow metal one way or the other.

Gold for June delivery on Comex GC.1, +0.73% GC00, 0.47% rose $6.80, or 0.4%, to $1,713.60 an ounce, while July silver SIN20, -0.03% was up 10.1 cents at $15.81 an ounce, a gain of 0.6%.

"Gold remains intractably near the $1,700 per ounce. Increased flight to safety and falling U.S. yields give support to the yellow metal below the $1,700 mark, but at the current levels, investors doubt about the gold's hedging capacity against a renewed panic selloff across risk assets," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at Swissquote, in a note.

"In case of strong market headwinds, however, we are confident that the gold price could make that jump to the $1,800 level without too much hesitation," the analyst said