Results of final Federal Reserve policy meeting of 2010 also in focus
By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Gold futures held small gains Tuesday, consolidating after having topped $1,400 in earlier trading, as a pair of U.S. economic reports on retail sales and wholesale prices last month came in stronger than forecast.
Gold for February delivery (GCG11 1,396, -2.00, -0.14%) rose $2, or 0.1%, to $1,399.70 an ounce. Earlier, the precious metal touched $1,408.90 an ounce.
The government reported retail sales rose 0.8% in November, while a separate report said producer prices rose 0.8% last month. See more on retail sales.
The data led to an improvement of the dollar, which weighed on dollar-denominated commodities including gold.
The dollar index (DXY 79.31, +0.02, +0.03%) , a measure of the greenback’s performance against a basket of six other currencies, slipped back to 79.102, after moving closer to unchanged following the data, and still down slightly from 79.281 in late North American trading Monday. Read about the dollar.
Also, “investors are watching the Federal Reserve meeting later today, as well as for signals on monetary policy moves in China, to gauge the health of the world’s top two economies,” said analysts at Richcomm Global.
Analysts widely expect the Fed to maintain its near-zero interest rate target and confirm its commitment to buy a total of $600 billion in Treasury bonds, which it began after its last meeting. A statement from the Federal Open Market Committee is due at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.
Gold futures closed higher Monday after China opted not to raise interest rates, removing some concerns about an abrupt halt to global growth. See Monday’s column on metals.
