Gold slips as US dollar firms on Fed rate hike outlook

[BENGALURU] Gold prices dipped on Monday, with the US dollar holding steady after marking a near three-week high in the previous session in the wake of the US Federal Reserve's plans last week for multiple interest rate hikes by 2020.

Spot gold was down 0.2 per cent at US$1,189.22 at 0111 GMT. The metal fell 0.8 per cent in September, marking its sixth straight monthly decline and longest monthly losing streak since January 1997.

On Friday, gold touched its lowest since Aug 17 at US$1,180.34 an ounce.

US gold futures were down 0.3 per cent at US$1,193.0 an ounce.

The US dollar index was steady against a basket of major currencies, having touched its highest since Sept 10 in the previous session.

The Fed raised interest rates last week and said it planned four more increases by the end of 2019 and another in 2020.

US consumer spending increased steadily in August, supporting expectations of solid economic growth in the third quarter, while a measure of underlying inflation remained at the Fed's 2 per cent target for a fourth straight month.

China will cut import tariffs on textile products and metals, including steel products, to 8.4 per cent from 11.5 per cent, effective Nov 1, the finance ministry said on Sunday.

With time fast running out, Canadian and US negotiators "made lots of progress" on Sunday on a renewed Nafta but had still not settled tough issues such as American tariffs and access to Canada's dairy market, an official and sources said.

The Fed's point-person on the theory of how high to raise interest rates said on Friday that estimating this "neutral" level is getting more difficult and less relevant as the US central bank continues tightening policy.

If the United States soon ends up imposing tariffs on all Chinese imports, the nation's economic growth would be reduced by up to 0.2 per centage point by the end of 2019, while domestic core inflation would rise by 0.2-0.3 point, JP Morgan economists said on Friday.

Canada's Bank of Montreal (BMO) has poached a team of six precious metals traders and salesmen in New York from Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank), which is pulling back from the market, five sources familiar with the matter said.

Gold speculators raised their net short position by 2,923 lots to 77,313 lots, the largest in three weeks in the week to Sept 25, according to CFTC data.

REUTERS