Investing.com - Gold rose to a one-week high on Thursday as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates amid growing concern that inflation is stagnating.
Comex gold futures rose 0.74% to $1,257.80 a troy ounce as of 4:57 AM ET (09:57 AM GMT).
The Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday raised rates for the third time in 2017 as expected, forecasting further rate hikes despite concerns over the slowing pace of inflation. Gold is sensitive to rising rates, which increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.
Fed officials also hiked their projection for economic growth in 2017 to 2.5%, while growth in 2018 was expected to rise to 2.5%, a 0.4% increase from the Fed’s September projection.
Gold was also bolstered by comments from U.S. President Donald Trump, who said he hopes to sign the tax reform bill “in a very short period of time." The highly anticipated bill will cut corporate taxes from 20% from 35%, which investors believe would help companies invest more and boost the economy.
Meanwhile the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched forward 0.06% to 93.46.
Tepid inflation data has put pressure on the greenback, as investors lower their expectations for a faster pace of rate hikes next year.
The Labor Department said on Wednesday its Consumer Price index rose 0.4% in November. However, year-over-year core inflation was below expectations, rising just 1.7%.
Elsewhere on the Comex, silver futures surged 1.24% to $16.065 a troy ounce. Among other precious metals, platinum rose 0.97% to $883.85, while palladium were down 0.21% to $1,001.92 an ounce.
Meanwhile, copper futures rallied 0.28% to $3.062 a pound.