The gold price recovered from one-week lows to remain little changed on Thursday afternoon while investors await the Fed’s April meeting minutes that are due for release shortly.
Spot gold was last at $1,209.80/1,210.50 per ounce, up $1.50 on the previous session’s close. Earlier it hit its softest in a week at $1,203.30 when the dollar hit a three-week high of 1.1062 against the euro.
Silver was last up one cent at $17.09/17.14 per ounce while platinum was up $5 at $1,152/1,157 and palladium was unchanged at $772/777.
FOMC members are locked in a debate on when will be the right time to raise interest rates, which have been near zero since December 2008.
At its last meeting, the Fed policy board removed all calendar references in its forward guidance and said that recent economic weakness might be “transitory” in nature. This means that bank is now entirely data dependent and a rate increase could happen at any future meeting.
The last meeting preceded the US first-quarter advance GDP growth figure of 0.2 percent – as well as being much weaker than expected, it is increasingly likely to be revised into negative territory when the final figure is released at the end of May.
Investors will scrutinise the minutes for signs of concern regarding whether or not this perceived slowdown will continue into the second quarter. Although it is unlikely that any direct references will be made until May’s meeting, signs of slowing economic growth might well stay the Fed’s hand in normalising monetary policy.
Investors will also dissect the minutes for comments on inflation or the labour market, which were directly cited by the Fed as ultimately dictating when a rate rise may take place.
In currencies, the dollar has pulled back marginally but still looks strong at 1.1077 against the euro after better-than-expected US housing data on Tuesday and news that the European Central Bank has pledged to front-load some of its bond-buying into May and June due to low liquidity later in the season.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)
The post Gold price moves off 1-wk low, market awaits Fed minutes appeared first on The Bullion Desk.
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