BENGALURU – Gold inched down on Tuesday but stayed near a four-week high touched in the previous session as investors waited for clues from a two-day US Federal Reserve meeting beginning later in the day and Britain’s June 23 vote on whether to leave the European Union (EU). The Dow is up 62.80 points or 0.4% at 17,737.62, the Nasdaq is up 13.30 points or 0.3% at 4,856.85 and the S&P 500 is up 7.18 points or 0.4% at 2,082.50. “Meanwhile, unlike in March, we do not expect the new Statement of Economic Projections (SEP) to generate any fireworks, but tweaks will be made to GDP and inflation”.
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In New Zealand today, first-quarter growth data is published at 10:45am. Still, new jobless claims have come in at historic lows, while USA retail sales rose solidly in May, pointing to healthy consumer spending.
“The Fed is waiting for flawless, and it’s very unlikely they’re ever going to get ideal, which just means they’ll be really slow to move”, said Mr. Tierney. On Friday, gold finished at $1,275.90, its highest level in more than three weeks.
Earlier, shares in Shanghai rose 1.6% even after a widely tracked emerging market index decided not to include a group of mainland Chinese stocks for a third time, delivering a blow to China’s efforts to join worldwide markets.
The kiwi didn’t move much after dairy product prices were steady at the GlobalDairyTrade auction overnight, as a 4.5 percent drop in whole milk powder offset gains in cheddar and butter. Had MSCI included China’s domestic stocks in its index, foreign investment in China could have increased. Rudings said investors are favouring less risky trades and trading volumes are subdued.
Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.27% to 896.30 tonnes on Monday, the highest since October 2013.
In Europe, London’sFTSE 100 index rose 1%, recovering somewhat from its largest losing streak since August. Bond investors said the uncertainty about the British vote has forced European investors to buy up USA government bonds in a search for yield and security, pushing bond yields to their lowest levels in years.
Stocks have moved mostly higher in morning trading on Wednesday after trending lower over the past few sessions.
Concerns about Brexit kept sterling under pressure.
The European Central Bank said it stands ready to work with the Bank of England to provide additional liquidity to financial markets if the United Kingdom votes to exit next week, a person familiar with the matter said. They bought gold, which gained for the fifth consecutive day, up 0.1% at $1,288.10 an ounce. Energy companies are falling as the price of oil continues to slide.
In currencies, the dollar inched down 0.1% against the yen to ¥ 105.92 after hitting its lowest 5 p.m.NY rate since September 2014 on Tuesday.
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The euro firmed to $1.12635 from this week’s low below $1.1200.
