Investing.com - Gold prices traded slightly above breakeven on Friday, as the yellow metal aimed for its first weekly gain since February, buoyed by the Federal Reserve’s more dovish than expected outlook concerning the pace of interest rate hikes this year.
Although gold prices pulled back from its session high of $1,231.45, after the release of mostly upbeat U.S. economic data, the yellow-metal continued to be supported by the Federal Reserve’s dovish statement released on Wednesday.
The Federal Reserve kept its previous outlook of three rate hikes for this year against expectations from market participants that the U.S. central bank was poised to adopt a more aggressive stance concerning the pace of rate hikes in 2017.
Meanwhile, mostly upbeat U.S. economic data heaped pressure on gold prices as manufacturing output and consumer sentiment data topped expectations while industrial production slowed in February.
In a preliminary report, the University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index rose to 97.6 in March from 95.7 the previous month while manufacturing output rose for a sixth straight month.
Both consumer sentiment and manufacturing output topped expectations while U.S. industrial production was flat in February, compared to expectations for a 0.2% rise.
Gold for April delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange gained $1.65 or 0.13%, to trade at $1,228.75 a troy ounce. The yellow-metal is on track for its first weekly gain since February.
Elsewhere, silver futures gained 0.4% to trade at $17.398 a troy ounce while copper traded higher at $2.69.
Platinum traded at $983.15 up 0.50% while Natural Gas climbed 1.83% higher to trade at $2.955.