Investing.com — Gold prices rose in Asian trading on Tuesday, reversing some losses overnight as traders held on to dovish signals from an upcoming testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
The yellow metal retreated on Monday but still made some gains last week as a series of soft labor market data raised expectations for a September rate cut. A weak dollar also helped gold’s advance.
rose 0.4% to $2,367.97 per ounce, while the August expiration rose 0.5% to $2,374.40 per ounce at 00:21 ET (04:21 GMT).
Gold is rising; Powell expected to provide more course guidance
Gold benefited from increased speculation about a rate cut in September, especially as the gold price retreated.
Soft labor market data had traders betting Powell will strike a dovish chord during a two-day , which starts later on Tuesday.
While Powell had recently noted progress toward disinflation, he had also said the Fed still needed more confidence to start cutting rates.
In addition to Powell, more Fed officials will speak this week.
Key inflation data is also available and will likely play a role in the Fed’s interest rate outlook.
Lower interest rates bode well for gold and other precious metals as they reduce the appeal of the dollar and debt, which tend to perform well in a high interest rate environment.
Other precious metals rose on Tuesday. rose 0.7% to $1,022.05 per ounce, while the price rose 1% to $31.218 per ounce. Silver has also comfortably outperformed gold in recent months.
Copper prices are rising and more Chinese signals await
Among industrial metals, copper prices rose further on Tuesday after recovering from sharp losses in June.
The benchmark on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.2% to $9,933.50 per tonne, while the index rose 0.4% in one month to $4.6245 per pound.
Copper traders were fully focused on more economic signals from top importer China, with figures to be announced later this week.
But China has been a sore point for copper as waning optimism about the country led to sharp losses in the red metal through June. Fears of a trade war with the West also kept copper prices relatively low.
