On Wednesday, predictions that interest rates will stay higher for longer caused gold prices to drop to their lowest level in almost 4 months, as U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell maintained his hawkish attitude.
After falling to its lowest level since mid-March at 1:43 p.m. EDT (1743 GMT), spot gold climbed 0.1% to $1,912.49 per ounce. U.S. gold futures ended the day at $1,922.20, down 0.1%.
Powell reaffirmed that the central bank will likely continue to raise rates in the future and did not completely rule out an increase in borrowing costs at the policy meeting slated for the end of July.
According to Daniel Ghali, commodity strategist at TD Securities, “although the market is pricing in a decent chance that the Fed will hike in July, the more relevant factor for gold is that the market has been simultaneously pricing out the number of cuts we could expect over the next year.”