Gold prices dropped on Tuesday as the dollar climbed higher ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speeches due on Wednesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n
A surge in Treasury yields lifted the greenback, and resulted in a drop in demand for the safe-haven yellow metal. The dollar also found support from comments by Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari that he’s not convinced rate hikes are over.<\/p>\n
The dollar index surged to 105.78 around mid morning, and despite easing to 105.55, remains well above the flat line, gaining about 0.31%.<\/p>\n
Gold futures for December ended down $15.10 at $1,973.50 an ounce.<\/p>\n
Silver futures for December ended lower by $0.645 at $22.589 an ounce, while Copper futures for December settled at $3.6790 per pound, down $0.0400 from the previous close.<\/p>\n
“Gold has broken lower today, appearing to enter into a correction phase after failing to significantly break above $2,000 on a number of occasions. Perhaps we’re seeing an unwind of some of the geopolitical risk in the markets<\/span> or just a technical correction in the rally over the last month but the last couple of sessions haven’t been great,” says Craig Erlam, Senior Market Analyst at OANDA, UK & EMEA.<\/p>\n Fed Chair Powell is due to deliver opening remarks at the Division of Research and Statistics Centennial Conference on Wednesday and participate in a policy panel discussion before the 24th Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n Traders are likely to pay close attention to Powell’s remarks, looking for additional confirmation the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n In U.S. economic news today, a report released by the Commerce Department showed the U.S. trade deficit widened by more than expected in the month of September.<\/p>\n The report said the trade deficit increased to $61.5 billion in September from a revised $58.7 billion in August. Economists had expected the trade deficit to climb to $60.2 billion from the $58.3 billion originally reported for the previous month. <\/p>\n