Investing.com - Gold prices moved lower on Tuesday as markets waited for Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell’s two days of testimony to Congress to start.
At 7:57 AM ET (12:57 GMT), gold futures for April delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $3.75, or 0.28%, to $1,325.75 a troy ounce.
Powell’s two-day semiannual testimony will kick off at 9:45 AM ET (14:45 GMT) Tuesday in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs where he will report on monetary policy and the economic outlook.
Powell is widely expected to support recent comments from other Fed members that the central bank is examining the possibility of halting its balance sheet run-off, known as quantitative tightening.
The Fed has pulled an almost complete about-face from just the end of last year when it hiked interest rates and forecast two further increases for 2019.
Having removed wording referring to expectations for “gradual increases” in interest rates from its January policy statement, the end of quantitative tightening would send a further dovish signal which is positive for gold as a non-yielding asset.
Apart from Powell, investors will also keep an eye on the publication of the Conference Board’s consumer confidence for February as well as housing data for December.
In other metals trading, silver futures fell 0.52% to $15.748 a troy ounce by 7:58 AM ET (12:58 GMT).
Palladium futures were unchanged at $1,494.45 an ounce, while sister metal platinum traded up 0.12% at $854.60.
In base metals, copper slipped 0.07% to $2.947 a pound.