Investing.com - Spot gold recovered the psychological $1,500 level on Tuesday as analysts bet on further support for the precious metal from central banks and falling yields.
Spot gold gained $8.79, or 0.6%, to $1,504.76 a troy ounce by 8:53 AM ET (12:53 GMT), while Gold futures for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, rose $3.25, or 0.2%, to $1,514.85.
Gold has hovered near six-year highs on prospects for easier monetary policy from the Federal Reserve and other central banks looking to buoy an economy weighed down by the prolonged U.S.-China trade dispute.
Mark Mobius, veteran investor and founder of Mobius Capital Partners, told Bloomberg TV in an interview with Bloomberg TV that investors "should be buying at any level, frankly," given the global outlook for falling interest rates.
He also said that interest in cryptocurrencies will simultaneously boost demand for “real, hard assets, and that includes gold.”
However, traditional buyers seem less convinced. Demand for the precious metal in India, the world’s second largest buyer, is fading amid record high domestic prices, according to a Bloomberg report.
Higher prices appeared to have dented demand, which grew 9% in the first half of the year. Full-year demand for gold in India is now expected to be at par with 2016, when consumption hit a seven-year low of 666 tons, as buyers restricted themselves to wedding-related purchases.
With both the Fed and ECB releasing minutes from their latest policy meetings this week, Investing.com senior commodity analyst Barani Krishnan said that “a boon for gold would be hints of a rate cut that would add to the Fed’s 25-basis point reduction in July, or the ECB’s first easing in a long time."
Markets are waiting for the Federal Reserve's annual central banking symposium at Jackson Hole on Friday, where Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak along with others.
Strategists at Saxo Bank said Powell’s speech provides an unknown risk of either a deeper consolidation in gold or further support.
“We do expect some fireworks on Friday,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said in the bank’s morning call.
In other metals trading, silver futures rose 0.2% to $16.977 a troy ounce by 8:54 AM ET (12:54 GMT).
Palladium futures gained 0.4% to $1,480.15 an ounce, while sister metal platinum fell 0.9% to $849.10.
In base metals, copper traded down 0.5% to $2.588 a pound.