Gold prices held steady on Wednesday as markets braced for the outcome of an OPEC meeting later in the day, with members of the producer cartel trying to seal a deal to boost oil markets.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold was up 0.16 percent at $1,190.26 an ounce by 0051 GMT. It dipped 0.4 percent in the previous session.
* U.S. gold futures were up 0.12 percent at $1,189.30 per ounce.
* The dollar moved sideways against the yen and euro early on Wednesday, as traders focused on the oil producers meeting, which could potentially churn financial markets and weigh on the U.S. currency.
* The U.S. economy grew faster than initially estimated in the third quarter, notching up its best performance in two years, buoyed by strong consumer spending and a surge in soybean exports.
* The case for raising U.S. interest rates has “clearly strengthened” since early November, before Americans elected Republican Donald Trump as president, Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell said on Tuesday in the latest signal that a policy tightening is imminent.
* Nine regional Fed banks in October pushed for an increase in the rate commercial banks are charged for emergency loans, minutes from the Fed’s Oct. 31 discount rate meeting showed on Tuesday.
* The European Central Bank is ready to temporarily step up purchases of Italian government bonds if the result of a crucial referendum on Sunday sharply drives up borrowing costs for the euro zone’s largest debtor, central bank sources told Reuters.
* German inflation unexpectedly remained unchanged in November, data showed on Tuesday, in a sign price pressures are still weak in Europe’s biggest economy, despite an economic upturn spurred by the European Central Bank’s ultra-loose monetary policy.
Source: Reuters
