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Commodities - Gold Prices Edge Higher; Eyes on Fed Statement

Published 09/20/2017, 01:34 PM
Updated 09/20/2017, 01:34 PM
© Reuters.

© Reuters.

Investing.com – Gold prices edged higher on Wednesday buoyed by a weaker dollar as investors awaited the Federal Reserve policy statement to gauge whether the central bank will stick to its plan to hike rates at least once more this year.

Gold futures for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose by $6.62, or 0.50%, to $1,317.14 a troy ounce.

Gold prices edged higher as investors widely expect the Federal Reserve to signal that it will start to reduce its $4.5tn balance sheet and leave its benchmark rate unchanged.

The Fed’s outlook on future monetary policy tightening is less clear, however, amid growing expectations that the trend of slowing inflation could force the U.S. central bank to scale back its plan to hike rates at least once more this year.

“The FOMC will announce its plans about trimming down the size of its mammoth balance sheet and the market has priced that in,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at ThinkMarkets. “What is not priced in the gold price is the hawkish tone by the Fed and that could trigger a selloff.”

At the FOMC June meeting, the "dot plot," part of the FOMC's Summary of Economic Projections, indicated that the central bank saw rates rising to between 1.25% and 1.5% by the end of the 2017.

The dot plot shows where each participant in the meeting thinks the Fed funds rate should be at the end of the year, for the next few years, and in the longer run.

Gold is sensitive to moves in U.S. rates, which lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion.

Also supporting sentiment on gold prices were comments from President Donald Trump on Tuesday, in which he threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if it attacks the U.S. or its allies.

In other precious metal trade, silver futures gained 0.52% to $17.37 a troy ounce while platinum futures lost 0.54% to $946.05.

Copper traded flat at $2.97 while natural gas fell by 0.48% to $3.11.

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