Investing.com - Crude oil prices were mostly steady in Asia on Friday, capping for now recent gains made as The Fed held steady and the Bank of Japan took a new tack on easing this week.
Gold for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange showed small gains and losses on Friday, last trading at $1,340.95 a troy ounce, up 0.02%.
Overnight, gold prices extended overnight gains during North America's session on Thursday, touching a fresh two-week peak as the U.S. dollar sold off after the Federal Reserve held off on raising interest rates and scaled back the number of rate hikes it expects next year.
The Fed left interest rates unchanged at the conclusion of its policy meeting on Wednesday, but hinted that a hike could come in December if the job market continued to improve.
At the same time, the U.S. central bank also cut the number of rate hikes it expects next year and in 2018, according to the median projection of forecasts released with its post-meeting statement.
The Fed has policy meetings scheduled in early November and mid-December. Economists believe policymakers would avoid a rate hike in November in part because the meeting falls just days before the U.S. presidential election.
Markets are currently pricing in a 10.3% chance of a rate hike at November's meeting, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool. For December, odds stood at around 57%.
The precious metal is sensitive to moves in U.S. rates, which lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion. A gradual path to higher rates is seen as less of a threat to gold prices than a swift series of increases.