“Gold rebounds amid optimism about US debt ceiling agreement”

(Reuters) – Gold recovered from its losses in early trading on Tuesday, with declines and returns amid broader optimism in the market regarding the US debt ceiling agreement.

And {8830|prices rose 0.8 percent to $ 1958.80 an ounce by 1830 GMT, after hitting its lowest level since March 17 earlier on Tuesday.

US gold futures rose 0.7 percent to $1,958 at settlement.

The dollar fell from its highest levels in 10 weeks, which increased the yellow metal’s attractiveness to holders of other currencies, while the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yields recorded their lowest level in one week.

Besides those positive elements, “you can also see some fund managers liquidating accounts at the end of the month, taking profits from their short positions and buying back,” said Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco Metals.

“In the near term, gold prices will trade sideways to decline until we see a new catalyst,” he added.

Returning from a long weekend in the US, traders are also assessing the surprisingly strong US economic data on Friday which reinforces the view for further tightening of monetary policy in order to curb inflation.

Ole Hansen, Head of Commodities Strategy at Saxo Bank, said that while earlier concerns about the US debt ceiling agreement supported gold prices, the Federal Reserve’s reconsideration of the rate hike path keeps gold under pressure.

High interest rates weaken the attractiveness of the non-yielding metal.

Traders now see the Fed as more likely to raise interest rates next month than to leave them unchanged.

As for other precious metals, it fell 0.1 percent in spot transactions to $23.17 an ounce, while platinum fell 0.6 percent to $1018.44. It fell 0.6 percent to $1,406.82.

(Prepared by Amira Zahran, Muhammad Muhammadin and Muhammad Ali Faraj for the Arabic Bulletin – Edited by Ayman Saad Muslim, Marwa Gharib and Hassan Ammar)