Gold held steady on Wednesday following a surge in the previous session on the US Federal Reserve's surprise rate cut, as a firmer dollar and strong uptick in risk sentiment limited bullion's upside. Spot gold was flat at $1,639.43 per ounce by 01:46 p.m. EST (1846 GMT), while US gold futures settled 0.1% lower at $1,643.
"We have a lot people focusing on US equities right now, also gold is digesting some of the move that it had yesterday after the Fed rate cut," said Michael Matousek, head trader at US Global Investors. Risk appetite among investors increased after a near sweep for Joe Biden in the Super Tuesday Democratic primaries, which helped boost US stocks.
Gold notched its best performance since June 2016 on Tuesday, rising as much as 3.7%, after the US central bank cut interest rates by 50 basis points in an emergency move to shield the world's largest economy from the impact of the coronavirus. This was the Fed's first cut outside of a scheduled meeting since the 2008 financial crisis. "We have negative interest rates around the globe and probably we can see more negative interest rates in the future ... there is uncertainty from the virus lurking around, so investors have reasons to why gold should be in their portfolio," Matousek added.
Lower US interest rates put pressure on the dollar and bond yields, increasing the appeal of non-yielding bullion. Limiting gold's advance, the dollar index rose 0.4% after falling to a two-month low in the previous session. Markets now await the Fed's Beige Book report, which will offer the first snapshot from the central bank's business contacts on how deeply the coronavirus is impacting the domestic economy. "We assume that other central banks will follow the Fed's example and will likewise loosen their monetary policy in the near future," Commerzbank analysts wrote in a note. "Gold prices are likely to climb further in the short term on the back of new easing measures by various central banks."
Elsewhere, palladium rose 1.3% to $2,533.52 per ounce, while platinum eased 0.2% to $873.17. Silver edged 0.2% higher to $17.21 an ounce. Auto industry platinum demand will rise for the first time since 2016, but it will be too little to offset a decline in investment buying, leaving the market in surplus, the World Platinum Investment Council said.
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