US gold futures bounced from three-week lows early Tuesday as traders ditched a few short positions added in Monday's hefty sell-off before a decision on US interest rates in the afternoon, dealers said. In other precious metals, silver rose from six-week lows amid firmer gold and the euro versus the dollar, and platinum and palladium traded mixed.
Gold for April delivery at the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $1.20 to $432.60 an ounce at 10:36 am (1536 GMT), dealing from $430.30 to $432.80.
April futures on Monday tumbled $8.30, or 1.9 percent, to finish at $431.40, the lowest settlement since March 3.
"The market is waiting for the Fed meeting result, which I think everyone knows already," said Frank Aburto at FC Stone, referring to broad expectations for a quarter-point interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve Tuesday afternoon.
"I think a lot of funds got out in the fast market yesterday and now they are taking a look in the gold again. There's some short covering," he said.
Markets shrugged off a report showing an 0.4 percent rise in US producer prices in February, due to big gains in food and energy costs. The core PPI, which excludes those volatile costs, was up 0.1 percent.
Spot gold fetched $431.85/2.60 an ounce, up from Monday's New York close at $431.00/1.50. The afternoon London fix on Tuesday was $432.15.
May silver rose 2.8 cents to $7.14 an ounce, trading from $7.05 and $7.165. Chartists put support at $7.10 and $7 an ounce and resistance at $7.55 and $7.68.
Spot silver inched up to $7.10/13, versus $7.08/10 Monday night. It fixed at $7.11.
April platinum fell $2.20 to $868 an ounce. Spot platinum traded to $862/866.
June palladium climbed 45 cents to $200.50 an ounce. Spot palladium touched $196/200.
Comments
Comments are closed.