Gold held the biggest advance in two weeks after the Federal Reserve passed on the chance to boost borrowing costs and lowered its outlook for long-term interest rates, bruising the dollar.
Bullion for immediate delivery was at $1,333.30 an ounce at 3:17 p.m. in Singapore from $1,335.17 a day earlier, when prices gained 1.6 percent for the biggest rise since Sept. 6, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index lost 0.3 percent, extending Wednesday’s drop.
Gold has rallied 26 percent this year, aided by the low interest-rate environment in the U.S. and negative rates in Japan and parts of Europe. Fed policy makers scaled back the number of increases they anticipate for 2017 after an expected hike later this year. The decisions came on the same day that the Bank of Japan maintained record stimulus, while shifting its focus away from a rigid target for the supply of money.
“Gold prices remain to be largely influenced by the greenback and interest rate expectations,” said Barnabas Gan, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. in Singapore. He kept a forecast for gold to climb to $1,350 if the U.S. central bank hikes once this year, or $1,400 if there’s no increase.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen signaled on Wednesday that while the case for a rise had strengthened, it made sense to put off a move for now amid signs that discouraged Americans who dropped out of the labor market are returning and looking for work.
• Holdings in gold-backed exchange traded funds increased by 5.4 metric tons to 2,023.7 tons on Wednesday, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
• Bullion of 99.99 percent purity advanced 0.8 percent to 286.7 yuan a gram ($1,337.14 an ounce) on the Shanghai Gold Exchange.
• Spot platinum lost 0.4 percent, snapping three days of gains. Palladium added 0.2 percent, while silver fell 0.6 percent.
Source: Bloomberg
