Gold slips to three-week amid expectation of more hawkish Fed comments
London — Gold fell 0.5% on Thursday, extending losses for a third day after comments from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell this week shored up the expectation for further increases to US interest rates and held the dollar near a five-week peak. In his debut testimony before Congress on Tuesday, Powell gave an upbeat assessment of the US economic outlook and indicated that the central bank would press ahead with further rate rises after three last year. Tightening monetary policy tends to weigh on gold because it increases the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets while boosting the dollar, in which the metal is priced. The second leg of Powell’s testimony, an opportunity to clarify comments made on Tuesday, is due at 3pm GMT. Spot gold was down 0.5% at $1,311.10/oz by 10.30am GMT, while US gold futures for April delivery were $5.90 lower at $1,312.00. Spot prices earlier hit a three-week low of $1,310.01. "We still expect the Fed to continue to hike interest rates, a...
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