Gold futures settled lower on Wednesday after the dollar moved up, extending gains from the previous session.
The dollar index rose to 93.26 ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve’s July meeting. However, it fell to 92.96 soon after the release of the minutes. It was last seen at 93.07, down marginally from Tuesday’s close.
Gold futures for December ended down by $3.40 or about 0.2% at $1,784.40 an ounce.
Gold prices briefly moved higher after the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its July meeting.
Silver futures for December ended lower by $0.237 at $23.470 an ounce, while Copper futures settled at $4.1200 per pound, down $0.0845 from the previous close.
Gold prices moved higher earlier in the day on safe-haven appeal as global Covid-19 caseload now surpassed 206 million, with the World Health Organization (WHO) saying the increasing trend is due to a spike in COVID-19 cases in the Western Pacific region and the America.
In economic news, a report from the Commerce Department showed housing starts plunged by 7% to an annual rate of 1.534 million in July after jumping by 3.5% to a revised rate of 1.650 million in June.
Economists had expected housing starts to slump by 2.6% to a rate of 1.600 million from the 1.643 million originally reported for the previous month.
Meanwhile, the report said building permits shot up by 2.6% to an annual rate of 1.635 million in July after tumbling by 5.3% to a revised rate of 1.594 million in June.
Most Federal Reserve officials at the central bank’s July monetary policy meeting believe it will be appropriate to begin tapering asset purchases this year, according to the minutes of the meeting.
The expectation of tapering the Fed’s asset purchases this year comes as most participants saw the “substantial further progress” criterion as satisfied with respect to the price stability goal and as close to being satisfied with respect to maximum employment.
However, the minutes of the July 27 to 28 showed there was still some disagreement over the timing of tapering the asset purchases.
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