Gold prices steadied on Wednesday as investors looked out for more US jobs data to gauge the Federal Reserve’s next steps on its monetary policy, although higher US bond yields kept a lid on bullion’s upside.
Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $2,043.72 per ounce, after hitting its lowest since Dec. 21 on Wednesday. US gold futures rose 0.4 percent to $2,051.10 per ounce.
The biggest driver for gold prices for the last few days has been waning expectations of interest rate cuts this year and it would remain to be the case over the next few days as well, said Kyle Rodda, a financial market analyst at Capital.com.
Minutes of the Dec. 12-Dec. 13 Fed meeting released on Wednesday showed officials were convinced inflation was coming under control but also noted an elevated degree of uncertainty about the outlook on rate cuts.
Lower rates decrease the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.
Futures markets see a 72 percent chance that the Fed could begin cutting rates in March, compared with a 90 percent chance a week ago, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool.
The dollar index ticked lower but lingered near a three-week peak hit in the previous session, while yields on 10-year Treasury notes rose to 3.9330 percent.
