Bitcoin price today: slips below $113k, near 6-wk low despite Fed cut bets
Investing.com-- Gold prices fell slightly in Asian trade on Monday, losing some ground after rising sharply on dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, which saw markets ramp up bets on interest rate cuts.
Buying in the yellow metal was curtailed chiefly by broader flows into more risk-driven assets, as investors speculated over lower U.S. interest rates. While gold and other metals did benefit from weakness in the dollar, their gains since Friday proved to be short-lived.
Spot gold fell 0.2% to $3,363.88 an ounce, while gold futures fell 0.3% to $3,408.0/oz by 01:30 ET (05:30 GMT). The yellow metal rallied some 1% on Friday, following Powell’s statements.
Gold encouraged by rate cut talk, but risk-on rally limits gains
Demand for havens was limited as traders piled into risk-driven assets en masse. Wall Street rallied on Friday, while Asian stock markets clocked sharp gains on Monday.
Powell signaled last week that the Fed was considering interest rate cuts in September, especially amid signs of cooling in the labor market.
But Powell also noted that the decision was not final, and that sticky inflation and uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs still remained a point of caution.
Still, Powell’s comments saw traders ramp up bets that the Fed will cut rates in September. Fed fund futures showed traders pricing in an 84.1% chance for a September cut, up from the 70% levels seen last week, CME Fedwatch showed.
This notion battered the dollar and benefited commodities priced in the greenback, especially metals.
But gains in metals were short-lived after Friday’s bounce, especially as investors sought better returns in more risk-driven, high-yielding assets.
Among other precious metals, spot platinum fell 0.4% to $1,359.11/oz, while spot silver fell 0.1% to $38.8265/oz.
Copper, industrial metals buoyed by rate cut hopes
Industrial metals, however, fared much better than their precious peers, amid growing hopes that lower interest rates will spur more economic growth, in turn boosting commodity demand.
Benchmark copper futures on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.4% to $9,780.30 a ton, while COMEX {{|copper futures}} rose 0.4% to $4.5485 a pound.
Nickel Futures rose 0.6% to $14,997.63 a ton.
Iron ore prices also rose sharply on Monday, especially as top producer Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) said it was suspending production at a mine in Guinea following a fatal accident.