By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - Bulls in gold pushed the yellow metal back into positive territory on Wednesday, ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell’s monthly post-interest rate decision news conference.
U.S. gold for December delivery pulled back from losses in overnight Asian trading to finish the New York session on Comex up $4.30, or 0.2%, at $1,970.50 per ounce. The gain put December gold ahead by almost $23 or 1.2% for the week, after accounting for gains in the previous two days as well. Wednesday’s session peak of $1,983.30 also marked a new two-week high for December gold.
The spot price of gold, which reflects real-time trades in bullion, was up $6.36, or 0.3%, at $1,960.42 by 1:47 PM ET (17:47 GMT).
Powell is scheduled to appear at 2:30 PM ET (14:30 GMT), 30 minutes after the Fed publishes its September interest rates decision, to take reporters’ questions on the central bank’s strategy six months into the coronavirus pandemic.
Since the August meeting of its Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed has moved from a focused 2% inflation target to an “average” inflation target of 20% — meaning it was willing to accept overshoots before raising rates again.
For the record, Powell has said the central bank was “not thinking about raising rates” until it had Covid-19 crisis under control, meaning the prevailing 0-0.25 rate regime could hold for at least a year or beyond.