The price of gold slightly declined on Tuesday due to the rise in the dollar and US Treasury bond yields. Investors are awaiting comments from a group of Federal Reserve officials this week to gain more clarity on the path of interest rates.
In the spot market, the price of gold decreased by 0.2 percent to $2050.35 per ounce at 02:01 GMT. Meanwhile, futures contracts for American gold rose by 0.1 percent to $2054.10.
The dollar index jumped to its highest level in 10 days, making commodities less attractive to holders of other currencies, while yields on 10-year US Treasury bonds rose to near 4 percent levels.
It is expected that the US central bank will announce at the end of its meeting on January 30th and 31st to keep interest rates unchanged.
Traders are expecting six interest rate cuts of 25 basis points each this year, with the first cut anticipated to take place in March.
The decrease in interest rates increases the demand for investments that do not generate returns.
A group of officials from the Federal Reserve are scheduled to speak this week, including Christopher Wall, a member of the central bank’s Board of Governors, who will deliver a speech on economic expectations in front of the Brookings Institute at 16:00 GMT.
In other places, officials at the European Central Bank calmed market expectations for swift interest rate cuts this year.
In regards to other precious metals, silver declined 0.2 percent in spot trading to $23.15 per ounce. Platinum also dropped 0.4 percent to $911.59, while palladium fell 0.3 percent to $968.96.
«reuters»
