Gold prices were steady on Wednesday after recovering to above the key $1,500 an ounce level in the previous session, with investors waiting for the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s July meeting for possible clues on further U.S. interest rate cuts.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold had inched down 0.1% to $1,505.42 per ounce by 0116 GMT.
* Gold on Tuesday recovered from a more-than-1% slide the day before, climbing above $1,500 an ounce again.
* U.S. gold futures were flat at $1,516.20 an ounce.
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* Investors are now focused on the minutes of the Fed’s most recent meeting, which are due on Wednesday. * They are also waiting for the central bank’s Jackson Hole seminar later this week and a Group of Seven summit this weekend for clues on what additional steps policymakers may take to boost economic growth.
* Traders see an about 94% chance of a 25 basis-point cut in U.S. interest rates in September.
* SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 0.21% to 845.17 tonnes on Tuesday.
* The dollar index, which measures the greenback’s value against a basket of six major currencies, was flat after drifting away from a three-week high hit on Monday.
* U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he had to confront China over trade even if it caused short-term harm to the U.S. economy because Beijing had been cheating Washington for decades.
* U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday the U.S. was not sending “mixed messages” on Huawei Technologies , and he does not believe a U.S. blacklist of the Chinese telecommunications giant will block a trade deal with Beijing.
* Earlier, the U.S. extended a reprieve that permits Huawei to buy components from U.S. companies to supply existing customers, but also moved to add more than 40 of Huawei’s units to its economic blacklist.