Gold was little changed once again on Wednesday morning – it has traded either side of $1,120 in recent sessions and is likely to remain there before next week’s FOMC meeting, market participants said.
The spot gold price was last at $1,121.7/1,122.2 per ounce. Trade has ranged narrowly from $1,120.8 to $1,125.5 so far.
Members of the US Federal Open Market Committee will contemplate whether to raise the Federal Funds rate for the first time since 2006 at its next meeting on September 17.
“In the run-up to the Fed’s meeting next week, market participants are likely to be exercising restraint, so we are unlikely to see any pronounced price fluctuations in one direction or another,” Commerzbank noted.
But although gold continues to trade largely unchanged, this means at least that it is successfully resisting the firmer dollar and rising equity markets, Commerzbank noted.
In currencies, the dollar index is slightly higher at 95.98.
In equities, major US bourses closed 2.4-2.7 percent higher yesterday, boosted by a strong close on the Chinese stock market. The Shanghai composite index rose 2.29 percent to 3,243.089 on Wednesday.
The economic agenda is fairly light today – data already out of Japan showed some improvement with M2 money stock and consumer confidence rising. Later US data includes the Jolts job data.
Elsewhere, according to Metals Focus, global gold miners’ total cash costs of production averaged $664 per ounce in the second quarter of 2015, a drop of eight percent on the same period of last year.
In paper gold, although ETF investors bought some metal in the second half of August after holdings reached a 2015 low, partly reflecting renewed interest in safe-have assets due to the turmoil in the financial markets, outflows have picked up again since the start of September.
This most probably reflects and easing in investor fears, FastMarkets analyst Boris Mikanikrezai noted, which “leads us to think that any potential rally in gold prices may only be brief”, he said.
In the funds tracked by FastMarkets, holdings now stand at 1,530.58 tonnes.
As for the other precious metals, silver was little changed at $14.75/14.80 per ounce as was platinum at $1,001/1,006 while palladium at $585/590 was down $3.
“Although platinum has gained some ground since its lowest level of around $943 beginning of August the metal is still considered to be cheap,” Commerzbank noted.
In supply news, Anglo American Platinum will sell its Rustenburg operations to Sibanye Gold for at least 4.5 billion rand ($330 million), it said on Wednesday.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)
The post Gold set to hold in tight range ahead of FOMC meeting appeared first on The Bullion Desk.
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