Gold prices climb, set for fourth straight month of gains on rate cut cheer

Investing.com-- Gold prices rose in Asian trade on Friday and were headed for a fourth straight month of gains in November on growing confidence the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in the coming month.

Bullion prices had briefly fallen in the prior session, but rapidly resumed their ascent as traders largely held onto bets on a December cut. Safe haven demand was also aided by signs of cooling in an equity rally, while geopolitical uncertainty around the Russia-Ukraine war and a China-Japan diplomatic spat also helped.

Spot gold rose 0.6% to $4,183.01 an ounce by 01:21 ET (05:21 GMT). Trading in futures of gold and other metals was disrupted by an outage at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, due to a data center issue. 

Gold heads for positive November, metal prices upbeat 

Spot gold was trading up 4.6% in November, its fourth straight month of gains. 

The yellow metal logged some volatility earlier in the month as markets questioned expectations for a December easing. But bets on a December cut rebounded through the past week, sparking strong gains in gold.

Gold was also up nearly 3% this week.

Markets are pricing in a 82.8% chance the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points during its December 9-10 meeting, up sharply from a 28.5% chance seen last week, CME Fedwatch showed. 

Confidence in a December cut was furthered by dovish comments from some Fed officials, while weak U.S. economic data also lent credence to bets on a cut. 

The dollar weakened this week, benefiting broader metal prices. Spot platinum surged 2.4% to $1,643.04/oz on Friday, while spot silver jumped 1.3% to $54.0905/oz, and was back in sight of a record high. The two were also up 4.5% and 11.3%, respectively, in November. 

Commodity trading disrupted by CME outage

Trading of several commodity futures and derivatives was disrupted on Friday due to an outage at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Equity futures were also affected. 

Futures for gold, platinum, copper, and silver all showed their last trade at 00:00 ET (05:00 GMT). 

CME Group said in a statement that the disruption was caused by a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centres, and that it was working to resolve the issue. 

The outage further dampened already thin trading volumes, following the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.