Spot gold was little changed at $1,220.70 per ounce at 0417 GMT, having gained about 0.7 percent in the previous session.
U.S. gold futures were down 0.1 percent at $1,222.3 per ounce.
• The possibility that the Fed might hold a neutral outlook beyond 2018, and a slowdown in the global economy amid the ongoing U.S.-China trade spat will keep investors a little more interested in gold’s safe haven appeal, said Benjamin Lu, a commodities analyst with Phillip Futures.
• Fed policymakers on Friday signalled further interest rate increases ahead, even as they raised relatively muted concerns over a potential global slowdown, leading markets to suspect the tightening cycle may not have much further to run.
A fourth rate hike for this year is expected next month and policymakers had earlier indicated two more by June 2019.
• “For December the rate hike is already priced in and it’s most likely going to happen,” Lu said.
“What people will be watching out for is any decline in economic indicators that could result in a softening of the dollar (that would) help gold gain,” he said.
• The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched about 0.1 percent higher on Monday. It had declined about 0.5 percent in the previous trading session.
• Investors were also cautious on conflicting signals on the chance of a truce in the Sino-U.S. trade dispute.
• Spot gold may end its current bounce below a resistance at $1,231 per ounce, and resume its downtrend from $1,243.28, said Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.
• Hedge funds and money managers boosted their net short position in gold by 33,378 contracts to 70,864 contracts, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. This was the highest net short position in five weeks.
• Among other precious metals, palladium was up 0.3 percent at $1,180.50 per ounce, having climbed to an all-time high of $1,185.40 in the previous session.
• Silver was down 0.2 percent at $14.39 an ounce. Platinum inched 0.1 percent lower to $845.20.
• “Citi projected gold prices are on track to notch levels of $1,270 per ounce by the end of 2018, before climbing to around $1,350 per ounce and $1,370per ounce over the next two calendar years.”
• “We are moderately bullish ... we anticipate moderately higher gold prices this year and in 2018. We leave our average price forecasts for 2017, 2018,2019 and long-term unchanged at USD1,282/oz, USD1,300/oz, USD1,330/oz and USD1,350/oz respectively.”
• “The average price of gold in 2018 will keep at $1,325 per ounce and reach $1,350 in the second half of the year, said Eugen Weinberg, analyst of Commerzbank in his email report.”
Reference: Reuters,GoldSliver
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