Gold rose 1 percent on Monday as the dollar edged lower on renewed weakness in oil and stock markets, with concerns over the global economic outlook raising questions about the US Federal Reserve's pace of interest rate tightening. The Federal Open Market Committee will meet Tuesday and Wednesday, and is widely expected to leave its federal funds rate unchanged at 0.25-0.50 percent.
Spot gold was up 0.6 percent at $1,104.95 an ounce at 2:34 pm EST (1934 GMT), after rising 1 percent to $1,108.50. "There is a greater consensus that there is going to be a further decline in financial asset classes (equities) this year," said Ross Norman, CEO of bullion broker Sharps Pixley. "But I don't think we are going to see Armageddon or a complete wipe-out, more likely a correction in the markets."
US gold for February delivery settled up 0.8 percent at $1,105.30 an ounce. Spot platinum rallied 4 percent to $862.90 per ounce, a two-week high, in sharp contrast to last week's seven-year low. Impala Platinum (Implats), the world's No 2 producer of the precious metal, said it was too early to assess the production impact of a weekend fire in South Africa. Spot silver rose 1.5 percent to $14.22 an ounce and palladium turned down 0.7 percent to $490.40.
Comments
Comments are closed.