Gold prices rose on Tuesday, hovering near a record peak hit in the previous session, supported by firm central bank buying, while investors watched out for the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting minutes and U.S. inflation data for fresh signals.
Spot gold was up 0.3% at $2,345.09 per ounce, as of 0621 GMT, after hitting a record high of $2,353.79 on Monday. U.S. gold futures gained 0.5% to $2,363.50.
“Gold has been the ‘asset of choice’ in financial markets, with an undercurrent of central bank buying and speculative flows sending the price to higher highs on a regular basis,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.
The minutes of the Fed’s March policy meeting and the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data are due on Wednesday. The Fed held interest rates steady at 5.25%-5.50% range in March.
After a strong U.S. jobs report last Friday, the market pared expectations for the number of rate cuts this year to two, from three to four a few weeks ago, according to LSEG’s rate probability app.
Higher interest rates reduce the appeal of holding non-yielding gold.
“Inflation data this week poses a risk if the readings come out on the hotter side of the ledger. But gold has been immune this week from rising bond yields, which could be a bullish signal for gold in the medium term,” Waterer said. [US/]
Spot silver rose 0.2% to $27.90 per ounce, after hitting its highest levels since June 2021 earlier in the session.
“We are seeing there is a bit of rotation back into the silver market given short-term speculators are now speculating silver prices to actually play this catch up given that gold has outperformed silver in the last one month or so,” said Kelvin Wong, a senior market analyst for Asia Pacific at OANDA.
Platinum gained 1.8% to $975.60 and palladium rose 1.3% to $1,055.14.
