Gold steadies in Asia

23 Mar, 2019

Gold was little changed on Friday below a three-week peak hit the day before, pressured by rising stock markets but remaining on track for a third straight weekly gain after the US Federal Reserve said there would be no further interest rate hikes this year.
Spot gold was up about 0.1 percent at $1,311.06 per ounce as of 0833 GMT, while US gold futures gained 0.3 percent to $1,310.80 an ounce.
Spot prices rose to their highest since Feb. 28 at $1,320.22 on Thursday, before paring gains to end the day down 0.2 percent.
"There was lot of profit-taking in gold after yesterday's big jump and investors went into equity markets," said Brian Lan, managing director at dealer GoldSilver Central in Singapore.
Asian shares rose to 6-1/2-month highs after upbeat US data and optimism in the tech sector lifted Wall Street stocks.
Gold is still on track for a third straight weekly gain, up about 0.7 percent so far this week.
"Technically, gold is getting good support at the $1,300 price level and fundamentally, the Fed not rising rates this year is a strong signal for gold," said Peter Fung, head of dealing at Wing Fung Precious Metals in Hong Kong.
The Fed earlier this week brought its three-year drive to tighten monetary policy to an abrupt end, abandoning projections for any interest rate hikes this year.
"Gold should push higher, especially once the Brexit uncertainty lifts (as it seems to be doing), allowing the dollar to resume its downward drift, especially now that the Fed has sidelined itself on the rate front," INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said in a note.

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