Gold prices jumped in the UAE and Asia on Thursday morning, as traders awaited key US inflation data that could influence the Federal Reserve’s policy path.
Spot gold was trading at $1,884.21 per ounce, as of 9.15am UAE time.
The precious metal prices jumped Dh1 per gram at the opening of the markets in the UAE. According to Dubai Jewellery Group data, 24K gold was trading at Dh228.25 per gram, up Dh1 from its closing rate last night. Among the other variants of the yellow metal, 22K opened at Dh211.25; 21K at Dh204.50; and 18K at Dh175.25 per gram.
Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at Oanda, said gold prices are not doing much ahead of the December inflation report.
“Fed rate hike expectations are leaning towards a 25bp rate increase at the February 1 meeting and the March 22 gathering appears to be a tossup between another small hike or a hold. Gold’s recent rally has made an eight-month high and it could extend further if disinflation trends remain firmly in place,” said Moya.
Naeem Aslam, a senior market analyst at AVA Trade, said the precious metal’s price continues to soar for the past five consecutive days.
“Traders are fairly optimistic about the Fed’s monetary policy and believe that the Fed is likely to adopt a less hawkish one. Jerome Powell, the Fed chairman, who spoke on Tuesday, didn’t drop any big hints about the Fed’s monetary policy. However, traders have taken his speech more positively and anticipate that the Fed will take it easy with its monetary policy,” said Aslam.
“The most important wild card is the US CPI inflation data. If the number doesn’t show satisfactory performance, we could see the dollar index soaring on the back of that number which could easily take away the shine from the gold prices,” he added.
American Dollar Exchange Rate