ALBAWABA — Gold prices rebounded slightly on Friday on the back of a softer United States dollar, higher U.S. jobless claims and a slightly less hawkish stance from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
On the international market, spot gold was up 0.15 percent at $1,837.40 a troy ounce, at 12:22 p.m. United Arab Emirates time.
The precious metal’s prices also slightly edged up in the U.A.E. in line with global rates on Friday.
The Dubai Jewelry Group data showed 24K gold price opening higher at 221.75 dirhams per gram as compared to yesterday’s closing at Dh220.75 per gram.
Similarly, 22K, 21K and 18K also opened higher at Dh205.25, Dh198.75 and Dh170.25 per gram, respectively, closing the day before at Dh204.50, Dh198 and 169.75 respectively.
"Currently, gold is in a wait-and-see mode," UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo told Reuters. "There's unlikely to be a change of script from Powell, reiterating the need for further rate hikes to bring inflation under control."
The dollar index was down from three-month highs scaled on Thursday, making gold more affordable for buyers holding other currencies.
Gold investors will now be focused on the U.S. jobs report for February expected out later Friday.
On Wednesday, Jerome Powell, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair, restated his message of higher and potentially faster interest rate hikes, but emphasized that no final decision has been made but rather hinged on expected data coming out before the U.S. central bank's policy meeting in two weeks.
"If — and I stress that no decision has been made on this — but if the totality of the data were to indicate that faster tightening is warranted, we would be prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes," Powell told the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee in testimony, mirroring the message he delivered to a Senate committee on Tuesday.
