Gold edges higher as greenback wavers amid hawkish rates stance

Gold edged higher in Asia as the US dollar weakened, but was still headed for a fifth straight monthly drop.

Bullion ended Monday little changed after tumbling to the lowest level in a month, as traders weighed the Federal Reserve’s commitment to keeping monetary policy restrictive for some time in the wake of Chair Jerome Powell’s comments at the annual Jackson Hole symposium Friday.

Powell indicated that the US central bank was likely to keep increasing interest rates and leave them elevated to quell inflation – even at the risk of the economy suffering. A stronger dollar and rising Treasury yields have also weighed on gold.

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said Monday that sharp stock-market losses show investors had got the message that Powell and his colleagues were determined to contain price pressures.

“People now understand the seriousness of our commitment to getting inflation back down to 2 per cent,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast. The Fed this week is also set to step up the unwinding of its near-$9 tn balance sheet.

Spot gold was 0.2 per cent higher at $1,739.83 an ounce as of 8.16am in Singapore, but was still down 1.5 per cent for August.

Prices fell to $1,720.45 on Monday, the lowest level since July 27. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index edged lower after rising 0.1 per cent in the previous session. Silver, platinum and palladium ticked higher.