Gold built on its biggest daily increase since June and traded near the highest in almost three weeks as the dollar weakened amid diminishing chances of a U.S. interest-rate rise in September.
Bullion for immediate delivery was 0.2 percent higher at $1,352.16 an ounce at 11:29 a.m. in Singapore, after surging 1.7 percent on Tuesday, the most since the results of the Brexit vote on June 24, according to Bloomberg generic pricing.
The metal has resumed its rally this year on reduced chances of the Federal Reserve tightening monetary policy this month after the Institute for Supply Management’s index of U.S. non-manufacturing industries slumped to its lowest level since February 2010. A gauge of the greenback traded at the lowest level this month. The Federal Open Market Committee meets on Sept. 20-21.
“The U.S. dollar remains the key factor driving the gold price,” said David Lennox, a resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney. “The latest sets of data out of the U.S. would tend to suggest no change in the Fed’s stance is likely, and hence the U.S. dollar may weaken a little and gold firm up pre-FOMC.”
Odds of the Fed raising rates this month slid to 24 percent as of Tuesday from 34 percent at the start of September, according to Fed funds futures tracked by Bloomberg. Lackluster manufacturing data and evidence of a slowdown in hiring have also fueled concerns over U.S. growth.
Still, Fed Bank of San Francisco President John Williams painted an upbeat picture of the U.S. economy in a speech on Tuesday, despite the recent disappointing data, saying it made sense to get back to a pace of gradual rate increases.
• Holdings in bullion-backed exchange traded funds added 13.8 metric tons to 2,031 tons on Tuesday, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
• In China, bullion of 99.99 percent purity rose 1.3 percent to 290.10 yuan a gram ($1,353.13 an ounce) on the Shanghai Gold Exchange.
• On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, gold for December delivery gained 1.5 percent to 291.10 yuan a gram, while silver surged 2.2 percent to 4,440 yuan a kilogram.
• Spot silver fell 0.1 percent, platinum advanced 0.5 percent, and palladium climbed 1 percent.
Source: Bloomberg
