WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures settled at a record high on Tuesday amid rising bets the Federal Reserve will soon start cutting rates.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Monday that the three inflation readings over the second quarter of this year provided policymakers greater confidence that the pace of price increases is returning to the central bank's 2% target.
'If you wait until inflation gets all the way down to 2 percent, you've probably waited too long,' he said.
Prices of the yellow metal climbed higher despite the dollar's upmove. The dollar index, which dropped to around its previous closing level in early New York session, climbed to 104.51 soon thanks to fairly encouraging retail sales data, and despite easing to 104.35, remained positive, gaining about 0.15%.
Gold futures for July ended up by $39.50 or about 1.63% at $2,462.40 an ounce.
Silver futures for July settled at $31.195 an ounce, gaining $0.523 or about 1.7%, while Copper futures dropped to $4.4525 an ounce, giving up $0.0765 or 1.7%.
The European Central Bank (ECB) interest rate decision is due on Thursday and economists expect the central bank to hold the main refinancing rate and the deposit facility unchanged.
In U.S. economic news today, data from the Commerce Department said retail sales came in flat in June after rising by an upwardly revised 0.3% in May. Economists had expected retail sales to come in unchanged compared to the 0.1% uptick originally reported for the previous month.
Excluding a sharp drop in sales by motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales climbed by 0.4% in June after inching up by 0.1% in May. Ex-auto sales were expected to creep up by 0.1%.
A report from the Labor Department said import prices were unchanged in June after dipping by a revised 0.2% in May. Economists had expected import prices to rise by 0.2% compared to the 0.4% decrease originally reported for the previous month.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said export prices declined by 0.5% in June after falling by a revised 0.7% in May. Export prices were expected to edge down by 0.1% compared to the 0.6% decrease originally reported for the previous month.
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