Gold was little changed on Thursday, as the US dollar stayed weak for the day and minutes of the Federal Reserve's June policy meeting were within market expectations for the pace of further interest rate hikes this year. US central bankers discussed whether recession lurked around the corner and expressed concerns global trade tensions could hit an economy that by most measures looked strong, minutes of the June 12-13 meeting showed.
"Essentially I think these are very well communicated risks that the market's had time to digest. The minutes had a dovish tilt ... but a few hawkish comments at the same time," said Daniel Ghali, commodities strategist at TD Securities in Toronto. The minutes, which described a meeting in which the Fed raised interest rates for the second time this year, also suggested policymakers might soon signal that the Fed's rate hiking cycle was advanced enough that policy was no longer boosting nor constraining the economy.
Spot gold was flat at $1,255.90 per ounce by 2:27 p.m. EDT (1827 GMT). US gold futures for August delivery settled up $5.30, or 0.4 percent, at $1,258.80 per ounce. The dollar index fell to its lowest level in more than a week while the euro climbed half a percent to near three-week highs following strong German data. Ahead of the release, it was widely telecast that the Fed projected two more rate hikes in 2018 for a total of four.
Investors are awaiting the release of non-farm payrolls and unemployment data on Friday. "One would not like to have any bullish bets on gold when the labor market trend is strong," ThinkMarkets chief market analyst Naeem Aslam said. Physical gold demand has been lackluster in India, the second-biggest gold consumer after China, Commerzbank said, lending no price support.
Meanwhile, silver lost 0.5 percent at $15.96 an ounce. Palladium increased 0.1 percent at $947.20 an ounce, while platinum declined 0.6 percent at $834.75, after touching its lowest since 2008 at $793 on Tuesday. "It's a speculative-driven selloff in platinum, it's not a fundamental driven selloff," said Jonathan Butler, commodities analyst at Mitsubishi.
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