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Gold futures kicked off the week on Monday with a modest move higher as traders looked ahead to this week’s meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers.
In addition to the Fed meeting Wednesday, prices for the precious metal may also be influenced by President Joe Biden’s speech to Congress on Wednesday and Thursday’s first quarter U.S. GDP report’s impact on the U.S. dollar — “gold’s natural adversary,” said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at SIA Wealth Management, told MarketWatch.
Read: Biden will outline ‘American Families Plan’ in speech to Congress, White House says
In Monday dealings, gold for June delivery
GC00,
GCM21,
inched up by $1.50, or nearly 0.1%, to $1,779.30 an ounce on Comex, but also traded as low as $1,768.20. May silver
SIK21,
was up 11 cents, or 0.4%, to nearly $26.19 an ounce.
The Federal Reserve will conclude a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday. No change in policy is expected and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is expected to continue insisting that interest rates are unlikely to rise before 2022 despite improving economic data and rising inflation fears.
Read: Tone of next week’s U.S. economic data on track to be positive but the Fed will remain tone-deaf
“If Fed Chair Powell were to play down the latest rise in inflation again at the subsequent press conference, gold could profit because this would confirm the impression that the Fed is prepared to accept an overheating of the economy and that it risks falling behind the curve,” said Carsten Fritsch, analyst at Commerzbank, in a note.
Meanwhile, gold prices briefly moved up to turn slightly higher, then moved back down in the aftermath of Monday’s release of U.S. durable goods orders for March. The government reported that orders for durable goods rose 0.5% last month. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, however, had forecast a 2.2% increase.
Rounding out metals action on Comex Monday, May copper tacked 2% to $4.42 a pound after ending Friday at the highest since August 2011.
July platinum
PLN21,
added 0.4% to $1,237.90 an ounce and June palladium
PAM21,
traded at $2,916.50 an ounce, up 2.1% in Monday trading and poised to mark another record high finish.
