Gold futures settled slightly higher on Friday, recovering well the day’s lows.
Investors, awaiting the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting next week, largely made cautious moves, weighing the prospects for rate hikes.
Ahead of the meeting, CME Group’s FedWatch Tool is indicating an 85.4% chance the Fed will raise rates by another 25 basis points.
The dollar index, which climbed to 102.17, dropped to 101.50 before edging up to 101.62, gaining about 0.11%.
Gold futures for June ended higher by $0.10 at $1,999.10 an ounce. Gold futures gained about 0.7% in the month.
Silver futures for July ended up $0.017 at $25.226 an ounce, while Copper futures for July settled at $3.8905 per pound, up $0.0065 from the previous close.
On the economic front, the Commerce Department released a report this morning that included readings on consumer price inflation that are said to be preferred by the Fed.
The report said the annual rate of consumer price growth slowed to 4.2% in March from a revised 5.1% in February. Economists had expected the rate of growth to slow to 4.6% from the 5% originally reported for the previous month.
The annual rate of growth by core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, also slipped to 4.6% in March from a revised 4.7% in February.
Economists had expected the rate of growth to slow to 4.5% from the 4.6% originally reported for the previous month.
Despite the slowdown, FHN Financial Chief Economist Chris Low noted, “Prices are still rising faster than the Fed is comfortable with.”
“The FOMC will hike another quarter-point next Wednesday, and may indicate further hikes remain a possibility,” Low said.
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