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Gold prices retreated modestly on Thursday but remained on track to finish what has been a volatile year just shy of six-month highs.
Price action
Gold prices due in February
GCG23,
+0.09%
fell $1.50, or 0.1%, to $1,814.30 per ounce on Comex, according to FactSet data.
March silver
SIH23,
+1.34%
climbed 25 cents, or 1%, to $24.09 per ounce.
Palladium for March
PAH23,
-0.56%
shed $25, or 1.4%, to $1,760 per ounce, while platinum for April
PLJ23,
+2.42%
gained $6, or 0.6%, to $1,026.
Copper due in March
HGH23,
-0.62%
fell 2 cents, or 0.5%, to $3.82 per pound.
Market drivers
After a difficult year, precious metals traders have bid up prices since the beginning of November as the strength of the U.S. dollar has eased.
Some of this momentum can be attributed to traders clinging to hopes for a Federal Reserve policy ‘pivot’ some time next year, market analysts said, even as the central bank has signaled with its latest “dot plot” forecast that it doesn’t expect to cut its policy interest rate until 2024.
“It seems gold traders, like the rest of us, have an idea of what the Fed will do early next year but are holding back as it doesn’t quite align with the hawkish narrative coming from the central bank,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA.
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