Gold benefits from dollar decline after Fed meeting

Gold prices rose on Thursday, fueled by a falling dollar after the Federal Reserve decided to suspend its pandemic-era bond purchases early next year.

As of 0941 GMT, spot gold was up 0.5% to $ 1,784.97 an ounce, while US gold futures were up 1.2% to $ 1,786.

The Fed paved the way to raise interest rates three times by the end of 2022, as the economy approaches full employment and the US central bank faces accelerating inflation.

This weighed down on the dollar, which lost about 0.4% against its rivals, making gold cheaper for holders of other currencies.

“The main factor today is the performance of the dollar”Said Ricardo Evangelista, senior analyst at ActivTrades. Moving forward, now that the Fed meeting is over, the big question mark for gold will be the actual impact of the omicron variant of the coronavirus on economic activity, he added.

In other precious metals, silver was up 0.4% to $ 22.15 an ounce, platinum was up 1% to $ 928.06 and palladium was up 3.9% to $ 1,659.08.