Gold Stabilizes Awaiting Fed Minutes

By Rahul Paswan

Feb 22 (Reuters) – Gold prices were largely unchanged on Wednesday as investors refrained from making big bets ahead of the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting, which could offer more hope. clues on the trajectory of interest rate hikes.

* As of 1053 GMT, spot gold was flat at $1,833.30 an ounce, while US gold futures were also little changed at $1,842.50.

* “Market attention is focused on the Fed minutes to be released later, but if there are concerns about accelerating inflation or persistent inflation scenarios, then we could see the gold prices potentially facing headwinds,” said Xiao Fu, an analyst at Bank of China. International.

* The minutes of the last Fed meeting will be published at 19:00 GMT. The Fed raised rates by 25 basis points at its January 31-February 1 meeting and is expected to raise rates above 5% in May, peaking at 5.347% in July.

* Gold is very sensitive to interest rate increases in the United States because it increases the opportunity cost of holding bullion, which does not earn interest.

* Recent US economic data has raised expectations for Fed rate hikes, putting pressure on gold prices, which have fallen 4.9% so far this month.

* In other precious metals, spot silver was down 0.1% at $21.81 an ounce; platinum rose 0.2% to $944.40; and palladium fell 1.8% to $1,498.09.

(Edited in Spanish by Carlos Serrano)