Gold prices edge up, but improved risk appetite caps gains

Reuters: Gold inched up on Tuesday in thin trading as investors made purchases after prices touched nearly one-week lows in the previous session, but improved appetite for riskier assets capped bullion’s gains.

Spot gold had risen 0.2% to $1,314.10 per ounce by 0651 GMT, having hit its weakest since 29 January at $1,308.20 in the last session.

US gold futures were firm at $1,318.10 an ounce.

Liquidity was low in Asia’s gold markets, with much of the region on holiday for the Lunar New Year.

“There is strong technical support and the Fed is mostly dovish, which should see gold supported around the $1,300-area,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst, OANDA, adding that a risk-on environment was taking a bit of sheen out of gold.

“The focus would be more on the US earnings season due to the absence of China for the whole week.”

Spot gold rose to its highest since late April at $1,326.30 last week, after the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady and said it would be patient on further hikes amid a suddenly cloudy outlook for the US economy due to global growth concerns and the US-China trade dispute.However, solid US jobs data that came out on Friday allayed concerns of an immediate slowdown in the US economy.

The central bank may need to raise interest rates a bit further if the economy does well, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said on Monday.“It seems to us that investors will need to get more signals before getting more aggressive in (acquiring long positions in gold), which won’t come until $1,360 or so,” analysts at TD Securities said in a research note.

“Despite the fact that the Fed has gone dovish, they could still hike one more time.”

Meanwhile, holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, dropped 0.50% to 813.29 tons on Monday. Holdings have fallen for a second straight session.“On the downside, support around $1,300 should be strong in the short-term (for gold) and we favour buying dips towards that level,” MKS PAMP Group said in a trading note.Among other precious metals, palladium was down 0.1% at $1,362.73 per ounce.

Silver rose 0.3% to $15.90, while platinum was steady at $816.77.