Shafaq News
Gold prices extended
their record run on Wednesday, as persistent market uncertainty and growing
investor confidence that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this
month lifted demand for the safe-haven metal.
Spot gold was up 0.1% at $3,537.76 per ounce, as of 0448
GMT, after hitting an all-time of $3,546.99 earlier in the session. US gold
futures for December delivery gained 0.3% to $3,603.50.
Adding to market uncertainty and potential trade tensions, US
President Donald Trump's administration said
it will ask the Supreme Court for an expedited ruling on tariffs that a US
appeals court found illegal last week.
"The Supreme Court decision has seemingly introduced a
lot of uncertainty into the market because they could radically change what the
macro landscape looks like if these decisions don't go the president's
way," said Ilya Spivak, head of global macro at Tastylive.
"The attempt at compromising Fed independence to some
extent, that's a very big deal as well. The bias for gold is very clearly
higher; momentum here seems rather one-sided."
Trump has been exerting relentless pressure on the Fed to
cut interest rates and publicly discussed firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Upping this battle, Trump last month attempted to fire Fed
Governor Lisa Cook, setting off a critical legal test over the Fed's ability to function without political
interference.
US rate futures are pricing in a 92% chance of a
25-basis-point Fed rate cut at the end of the two-day policy meeting on
September 17, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.
Non-yielding gold typically performs well in a
low-interest-rate environment.
SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed
exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 1.32% to 990.56 tons on Tuesday,
the highest since August 2022.
Investors are now looking forward to the US non-farm
payrolls data, due on Friday, to determine the size of the Fed's potential rate
cut later this month.
Elsewhere, spot silver eased 0.4% to $40.74 per ounce, after
hitting its highest point since September 2011 in the previous session.
Platinum edged 0.1% lower to $1,401.59, and palladium rose 1.5% to $1,146.75.
(Reuters)
Only the headline is edited by Shafaq News Agency.