London — Gold steadied on Monday ahead of a meeting of the US Federal Reserve this week that could yield clues to the future direction of US interest rates and the dollar, key factors for precious metal prices. Spot gold was down about 0.1% at $1,221.93/oz at 9.09am GMT compared with a one-year low of $1,211.08 hit in June. US gold futures were 0.3% lower at $1,219/oz. A higher US currency makes dollar-denominated gold more expensive for holders of other currencies, which could subdue demand. Dollar gains since the middle of April have led to losses of about 10% for spot gold. "Gold is still a dollar story and I see no sign of the correlation breaking down," said Oliver Nugent, commodities strategist at ING, adding that a significant driver for dollar gains has been safe-haven flows due to trade tensions. "Lack of investor interest is leading gold to behave like a currency, there are no safe-haven flows to gold." The US signalled last week that it is set to push ahead with talks wit...
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