New York Fed President William Dudley is scheduled to give a speech on economic conditions at 1500 BST, while San Francisco Fed President John Williams is due to speak at 1600 BST. Futures contracts dipped slightly, signaling receding bets of a USA rate increase.
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U.S. equities rallied on Monday, with all three major indices setting new closing records for the second time in less than a week.
The Fed left rates unchanged at its last meeting in July but said near-term risks to the economy had diminished, leaving the door open for a possible rate hike this year.
Stocks in the U.S. are heading for a flat market open on Thursday, focusing on speeches by Federal Reserve (Fed) officials and the Philly Fed manufacturing index.
“Against this backdrop, the Committee made a decision to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 1/4 to 1/2 percent”.
The US central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates before the end of the year, but it is not clear when. A number of factors, though, have interfered with those forecasts – including varying US labor statistics and Britain’s surprise exit from the European Union in June. Those comments coupled with improving economic data to suggest a US economy ready for policy normalization.
Inflation has remained well below the central bank’s 2% target.
“Nobody would be willing to sell gold aggressively even if there is a hike in rates, with the United States presidential elections in November creating uncertainty”.
At the July meeting, the Fed kept its benchmark rate in a range of between 0.25% and 0.5%. Investors yearn for clues as to whether that increase will come in September or December. Since she began voting on monetary policy as Kansas City Fed president in 2011, she has voted with the majority on just two occasions. “I don’t think this tells us much about the September meeting, which is, as ever, data- and market-dependant, but it does tell us that the most we’ll get is a very slow and cautious tightening path”. “This is not a time to try to cool an overheated economy”.
The Philly Fed Manufacturing index is expected to rebound to 1.2 points in August, following -2.9 a month before.
Platinum rose 0.5 percent to $1,118.50, after hitting a three-week low of $1,099.74 in the previous session, while palladium was up 1.1 percent at $699.50.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 25.82 points, or 0.14 percent, at 18,526.2, the S&P 500 .SPX was down 2.38 points, or 0.11 percent, at 2,175.77 and the Nasdaq Composite index .IXIC was down 6.42 points, or 0.12 percent, at 5,220.69.
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Data on United Kingdom labour markets will be another focus and having got close to July’s 31-year lows earlier in the week, sterling was trading nearly unchanged at $1.3025.
