Gold hovers near mid-March low as Jerome Powell flags more rate hikes
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Gold prices lingered near their lowest in nearly four months on Thursday, as U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell kept the door open for more interest rate hikes to bring down inflation.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold rose 0.25% to $1,912.19 per ounce by 0123 GMT. On Wednesday, the metal hit its lowest since mid-March at $1,902.69.
* U.S. gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,920.50.
* The dollar index was steady. [USD/]
* Powell suggested another two rate hikes to the Fed funds target rate were likely, and he did not see inflation abating to the 2% target until 2025.
* Investors now see an 81% chance of a 25-basis point rate hike in July, according to CME's Fedwatch tool.
* High interest rates discourage investing in non-yielding gold.
* Market participants are now awaiting initial U.S. jobless claims and final first-quarter GDP numbers due later in the day, along with personal consumption expenditures (PCE) data for May on Friday.
* Analysts polled by Reuters expect the core PCE to be 4.7% on a year-over-year basis, well above the Fed's 2% target.
* Elsewhere, Japanese retail sales rose 5.7% in May, slightly above the median market forecast for a 5.4% gain, according to government data.
* Spot silver rose 0.6% to $22.86 per ounce while platinum gained 0.7% to $916.73.
* Palladium jumped 1% to $1,261.66, having fallen to its lowest in 4-1/2 years in the previous session.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0130 Australia Retail Sales MM Final May
0900 EU Consumer Confid. Final June
1200 Germany CPI Prelim YY June
1200 Germany HICP Prelim YY June
1230 US Initial Jobless Clm Weekly
1230 US GDP Final Q1
