The dollar index fell 0.2% – making gold cheaper for foreign buyers – under pressure after recent US data raised hopes of a slowdown in the pace of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
Elevated rates drive down interest on non-yielding gold, as they did for most of 2022.
“The data suggests that the Fed’s cumulative tightening in 2022 is starting to take its toll on the economy and that the Fed can afford to slow its pace of tightening,” said Christopher Wong, strategist at OCBC FX.
Traders will now assess Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at a central bank conference in Stockholm on Tuesday and US Consumer Price Index data.which will be known on Thursday.
“We believe that (gold) prices are trading at the high end of a fundamentally justified range,” Carsten Menke, an analyst at Julius Baer, said in a note, adding that central bank purchases have become a new area of focus for the bullion market.
Among other precious metals, silver was up 0.5% at $23.94 an ounce, platinum was up 0.7% at $1,098.00 and palladium was up 1.2% at $1,827.38.
Source: Ambito
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