· Gold was flat on Tuesday, barely budged from the prior session's two-week low, with trading lackluster as Federal Reserve policy makers headed into a two-day meeting that financial markets will watch for clues on the outlook for U.S. monetary tightening.
· Spot gold was up 0.21 percent at $1,309.32 per ounce by 2:14 p.m. EDT (1814 GMT), off the previous day's low of $1,304.10. The most active U.S. gold futures for December delivery settled down $0.2, or 0.02 percent, at $1,310.6 per ounce.’
· Trading volume was "slightly softer, which is generally to be expected ahead of the Fed," said Suki Cooper, precious metals analyst at Standard Chartered Bank in New York.
The dollar dipped slightly against a basket of currencies ahead of the Fed meeting. Analysts expect the Fed to issue a statement on Wednesday announcing that it will reduce bond purchases while leaving the door open to a U.S. interest rate hike in December.
Cooper said Fed balance sheet reduction "has been widely telegraphed. At the moment we believe we'll see one more rate hike."
· "The dollar fell and then rose and that was basically a mirror image of today's gold market," said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategy at TD Securities in Toronto.
· Worries over North Korea could still boost gold with safe-haven buying, analysts said. Markets were little changed on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly, vowing to "totally destroy" North Korea unless Pyongyang backs down from its nuclear challenge.
· "My concern at the moment is that this gold rally has been led by short term tactical investors," Cooper said. Josh Graves, senior market strategist at RJO Futures in Chicago, noted that hedge funds and money managers have built a hefty net long position in gold.
"I feel like unless there is some sort of spark to this market, you're going to see the funds start to unwind that net long position," he said.
· Technically, December gold futures prices closed nearer the session low again today closed at a three-week low close. The gold bulls still have the overall near-term technical advantage, but have faded and need to show fresh power soon to avoid serious near-term technical damage, including a price uptrend on the daily chart being negated. Gold bulls' next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at $1,340.00. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is pushing prices below solid technical support at $1,300.00. First resistance is seen at today’s high of $1,314.30 and then at $1,320.00. First support is seen at $1,307.00 and then at $1,300.00. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 6.0
· Among other precious metals, silver was up 0.35 pct at $17.27 an ounce, while platinum fell 0.74 pct at $952.4 an ounce. Palladium was down 2.86 pct at $908.73 an ounce was down 2.1 percent at $916.14. Its session low of $908.97 an ounce was its lowest in a month.
Reference: Reuters, Kitco
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