Gold at 1-week high as Trump remarks on Fed weigh on dollar

Reuters  |  BENGALURU 

By Apeksha Nair

Spot gold rose 0.4 percent to $1,194.81 an ounce at 0701 GMT, after touching $1,196.27 earlier, the highest level since Aug. 14. U.S. gold futures climbed 0.5 percent to $1,200.60 an ounce.

The dollar sagged against major peers and the yen on Tuesday after Trump, in an interview with Reuters, criticised Fed - his own appointee - for raising interest rates.

"Ultimately (the dollar) is giving much needed strength to gold prices," said Vandana Bharti, assistant vice of commodity research at "The dollar index may see further correction up to the level of 95.2 which may assist gold to move upward."

The dollar index was last down 0.30 percent at 95.608.

Gold is highly sensitive to rising U.S. rates as it increases the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.

has raised rates twice this year and targets two more hikes, with the next one slated in September. However, said on Monday he was maintaining his expectation for one more interest rate hike this year.

Meanwhile, investors looked ahead to the release of the Fed's August meeting minutes on Wednesday and the bank's annual policy symposium at Jackson Hole, later this week.

Spot gold may end its current bounce around a resistance at $1,206 per ounce, and then resume its downtrend, said.

"Until there is a sustained sell-off in the dollar, speculators will be more prone to sell upticks (in gold)," said Stephen Innes, APAC trading head,

Markets were also focused on a U.S.-trade meeting this week, but Trump on Monday said he did not expect much progress from talks with

Among other precious metals, spot silver climbed 0.6 percent to $14.79 an ounce. rose 0.8 percent to $799.90 and palladium edged up 0.3 percent to $913.50.

(Reporting by and in Bengaluru; Editing by Joseph Radford, and Sai Sachin Ravikumar)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Tue, August 21 2018. 13:08 IST