Gold Pares Gains as Powell Dampens Bet on December Rate Cut
Gold pared gains after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell downplayed the likelihood of a December interest-rate cut.
“A further reduction in the policy rate at our December meeting is not a foregone conclusion — far from it. Policy is not on a preset course,” Powell said at a press conference after policymakers delivered a widely-expected quarter-point rate reduction on Wednesday.
Bond yields and the dollar climbed, with bullion giving some of its earlier advances. Higher rates are typically negative for the non-yielding precious metal.
Gold has retreated sharply in recent days following a torrid rally that drove prices to a record above $4,380 an ounce last week. Technical indicators had shown the ascent had run too far, too fast — a move that coincided with reduced demand for havens amid signs of progress in US-China trade relations.
President Donald Trump said he expects to lower tariffs the US imposed on Chinese goods over the fentanyl crisis and speak with China’s Xi Jinping about Nvidia Corp.’s flagship Blackwell artificial intelligence chip, as leaders of the world’s biggest economies seek to ease tensions in a meeting on Thursday.
Even after gold’s recent pullback, the metal is still up more than 50% this year, supported by central-bank buying and the so-called debasement trade, in which investors avoid sovereign debt and currencies to protect themselves from runaway budget deficits.
The surge had drawn institutional and retail buyers to gold-backed exchange-traded funds — although outflows this week have dented some of that support. Total gold ETF holdings fell for a fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Gold’s role as a portfolio hedge against fiscal and policy uncertainty remains undiminished, though short-term exuberance has clearly given way to consolidation,” said Christopher Wong, a currency strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. “If we manage to consolidate in this range of $3,920-$4,020 an ounce, then it may set the stage for base-building before the next leg higher.”
Spot gold rose 0.2% to $3,959.92 an ounce as of 3:03 p.m. in New York. Silver, platinum and palladium all advanced.
Source : Bloomberg.com
