WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold prices held steady on Tuesday after falling more than 1 percent in the previous session amid a global rout in technology stocks, sparked by the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's breakout success.
Spot gold edged up by 0.1 percent to $2,743.05 per ounce in European trade while U.S. gold futures were up 0.3 percent at $2,772.99.
The dollar strengthened against peers after U.S. President Donald Trump said he plans to impose sweeping tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper, semiconductor, and pharma imports in a push to increase U.S. production of the products.
Also, Scott Bessent was confirmed as U.S. Treasury Secretary, with the Financial Times reporting that he was in favor of universal tariffs starting at 2.5 percent.
Meanwhile, traders shifted their focus to upcoming Fed and ECB meetings.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, but traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates.
To justify further loosening, the Fed needs evidence of economic weakness and more subdued inflation prints.
Most economists expect the U.S. central bank to resume cutting rates only sometime in the first half of the year.
The European Central Bank (ECB) meets on Thursday and another rate cut is fully priced in by markets.
The ECB is expected to continue its rate-cutting cycle in 2025, with analysts expecting moderate cuts of 0.25 percentage points each, probably in each of the four rate monetary policy meetings in the first half of the year.
The Bank of Canada and Riksbank are expected to reduce key policy rates, but markets will closely watch any clues on the outlook.
In economic releases, U.S. durable goods orders for December, Redbook report, house price index for November, consumer confidence data for January and Richmond manufacturing index for January are slated for release in the New York session.
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