© Reuters.
Investing.com – Gold prices rose slightly on Friday, but appeared in the red for the fourth straight week amid heightened uncertainty about U.S. monetary policy and as markets looked for more clues from a reading of the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation in the coming months. later in the day.
The yellow metal saw some calm after the fourth quarter GDP data in the USA}} showed slightly lower levels, indicating that the economy has cooled down more than expected under the pressure of rising interest rates. The reading also raised some hopes that there is less economic room for the Federal Reserve to continue raising interest rates.
Gold prices now
It is trading at 1822.35 dollars an ounce, while it records 1829.65 dollars an ounce, up 0.16% on the day of preferred inflation data by the Federal Reserve.
As for contracts, they fell 0.48%, to record $21,200.
At the same time, the dollar index recorded 106.465, up by 0.10%, and its rise remains dependent on expected inflation data. If it is negative, it is expected to rise strongly due to the change in expectations towards the Federal Reserve and the possibility of an increase in the chances of raising interest rates by 50 basis points in the expected March meeting.
Look at the most important data
The PCE price index, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, is expected to confirm that price pressures will continue to rise in January. Everyone knows that curbing inflation is the central bank’s main priority, while the Fed has issued few indications that it plans to pause its rate hike spree. All of these conditions do not bode well for gold, as higher yields raise the opportunity cost of owning non-yielding assets such as metals.
Federal and gold
A slew of Fed speakers are going for more rate hikes this week, with some even calling for a faster pace of increases in the coming months. The minutes of the Fed’s February meeting also showed that most officials were supportive of higher interest rates.
But markets remain concerned about how low interest rates will go. This limited the bullish trend in metals prices, as traders feared that the final interest rate would be higher than expected.
other precious metals
Other precious metals didn’t have so much luck on Friday, with Platinum and Gold moving less than 0.1% in both directions. But platinum managed to outperform its peers this week by a jump of nearly 3%, after ending a six-week losing streak.
As for the industrial metals, copper prices steadied on Friday after falling in the previous session as weak US GDP data raised concerns about a slowdown in industrial activity.
It rose 0.1% to 4.0570 a pound, after falling 3.3% in the previous session. The losses also put copper on course for a weekly loss of 1.3%.
Uncertainty about the economic recovery in China, the world’s largest copper importer, has weighed on copper in recent weeks.
