Gold futures declined for a second day on Tuesday as traders braced for Wednesday’s Federal Reserve interest rate decision along with data on U.S. unemployment and wages. Price action
Gold for April delivery
GC00,
-0.37%
GCJ23,
-0.37%
fell by $15.10, or 0.8%, to $1,924 an ounce on Comex.
Silver for March delivery
SI00,
-1.17%
SIH23,
-1.17%
declined by 40 cents, or 1.7%, to $23.34 per ounce.
March palladium
PAH23,
-0.92%
fell by $28, or 1.7%, to $1,600, while platinum for April
PLJ23,
-1.49%
declined by $22, or 2.2%, to $998 per ounce.
Copper for March
HGH23,
-0.98%
fell by 6 cents, or 1.5%, to $4.144 a pound.
Market drivers Once again, precious metals traders chalked up Tuesday’s weakness to profit-taking ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting, where some expect Chairman Powell to push back on expectations that the central bank might soon conclude its cycle of interest rate hikes.
The expectation that Powell could move to crush the rally in stocks as he did in August during his brief but impactful speech at Jackson Hole, Wyo. has helped bolster the U.S. dollar this week while weighing on the major equity indices. “It seems that market participants are already pricing in a hawkish message by Fed Chair Powell and his colleagues,” said Charalampos Pissouros, senior investment analyst at XM. The ICE U.S. Dollar index
DXY,
-0.03%
was up 0.2% at 102.43 on Tuesday, while S&P 500
ES00,
+0.30%
futures pointed to a lower open. Investors are also awaiting a reading from the U.S. employment-cost index, which will arrive Tuesday ahead of the January employment report due out Friday. Both data will offer insights into the pace of wage inflation, a key issue for the Fed as it struggles to beat core inflation back to its 2% target.
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