Comments
Gold edged higher on Wednesday, holding above $1,200 an ounce as the dollar retreated and expectations grew that the Federal Reserve could delay an anticipated U.S. rate rise to next year.
The Fed will release the minutes of its March policy meeting later in the day and traders will scrutinise it for any concerns from policymakers about US economic growth.
Spot gold was up 0.1 per cent at $1,208.71 an ounce by 0918 GMT. Bullion climbed to its highest since Feb. 17 at $1,224.10 on Monday, after weaker-than-expected U.S. nonfarm payrolls cooled prospects of an earlier interest rate move.
US gold for June delivery was unchanged on the day at $1,210.10 an ounce.
"We really need to break at least through the $1,220/$1,225 area, or close above the 200-day moving average, which sits a bit higher at around $1,230, to get momentum going," Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar said, predicting the Fed minutes would not bring any surprises.
At the March meeting, Fed officials opened the door for a rate increase as early as June by removing a pledge to be "patient" in normalising monetary policy. But their cautious economic outlook weighed on the dollar and sent gold on a seven-day rally, its longest winning run since 2012.
The dollar was down 0.3 per cent against a basket of leading currencies, mostly due to yen strength after the Bank of Japan's decision to stand pat on monetary policy.
Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota on Tuesday laid out a case for waiting until the second half of 2016 to start raising rates, a day after New York Fed President William Dudley said the timing of an increase was unclear.
Physical demand from second biggest gold consumer China stayed weak as the premium for physical gold at the Shanghai Gold Exchange held just above par with the global spot benchmark on Wednesday.
"There are more investment venues for the Chinese to look into other than gold. Equities are roaring ahead and they can now buy bond futures. I don't see why people should buy gold at this time," said Howie Lee, investment analyst at Phillip Futures.
Spot silver was little changed at $16.81 an ounce, while platinum lost 0.3 percent to $1,168 an ounce and palladium was up 0.2 percent at $768.30 an ounce.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.