Gold prices down for the session, up modestly for the week as investors look to Fed meeting

Gold prices ended lower on Friday, holding on to a modest gain for the week as signs of ebbing inflation in the U.S. and Europe have helped boost precious metals prices this month on hopes central banks will moderate interest rate rises as a result.

Price action

Gold for August delivery
GC00,
+0.12%

GCQ23,
+0.12%
declined by $4.30, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,966.60 an ounce on Comex, ending 0.1% above the week-ago finish of $1,964.40.
Silver for September delivery
SI00,
+0.00%

SIU23,
+0.00%
shed 11 cents, or 0.4%, to $24.86 per ounce, with prices down nearly 1.4% for the week.
October platinum
PLV23,
+0.05%
rose $8.10, or 0.8%, to $972.20 per ounce — losing 1.2% for the week, while September palladium
PAU23,
+0.14%
rose by $11.20, or 0.9%, to $1,286.50 per ounce, ending 1.6% above the week-ago finish.
September copper
HGU23,
+0.05%
declined by 2 cents, or 0.4%, to $3.82 per pound, posting a weekly decline of 2.9%.

Market drivers

Gold traded higher for the month, on pace to notch its best monthly percentage rise since March, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Prices have found support since the release of the U.S. June inflation data earlier this month showing that consumer prices increased at the slowest pace since August 2021. That provided a sign that inflation is waning more quickly than Wall Street economists and perhaps even the Federal Reserve had expected.

For the month, prices based on the most-active contract have climbed 1.9% month to date.

Next week, investors will learn more about how the latest data are impacting the Fed’s plans for raising interest rates when Chair Jerome Powell delivers his postmeeting press conference on Wednesday.

“Bullion bulls have leapt in July on hopes that the Fed’s next rate hike will be the last in this cycle,” said Han Tan, chief market analyst at Exinity Group. “If the Fed lends credence to market expectations for no further rate hikes after this month,” that may help bullion bulls reclaim the $2,000 handle on gold.

However, “if the Fed pours cold water on the notion that its rate hikes are coming to
an end, that could prompt bullion to unwind more of its recent gains and falter back into the lower-$1,900s,” he told MarketWatch.

Against that backdrop, the U.S. dollar was up in Friday dealings, adding to the pressure on gold. It was up 0.2% at 101.06.

Read: Buy gold and sell U.S. dollars, this strategist says. Here’s why.

Meanwhile, a recent survey released Friday showed that most private investors expect to see gold prices rise further by the end 2023.

Nearly 50% private investors forecast that the price of gold will climb by 10% by the end of the year to around $2,125 an ounce, according to a survey conducted by BullionVault, with over 1,440 responses from private investors.

Investors responding to the survey also said they believe monetary policy will have the greatest impact on gold prices and other precious metals between now and the end of this year, followed by geopolitical issues and the size of government spending and deficits.

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