Gold jumped on Wednesday, December 21, as a retreat in the dollar from the previous session’s 14-year peak pushed some buyers to hunt bargains after the metal’s sharp slide from its November high, Reuters reports.
The precious metal had been hit hard by a surge in the dollar after the November U.S. elections, and a more hawkish tone from the Federal Reserve after it hiked U.S. interest rates for only the second time in a decade last month.
Prices had fallen more than 11 percent since the elections, before finding a floor at around $1,125 an ounce. Spot gold was up 0.02 percent at $1,131.78 an ounce, while U.S. gold futures for February delivery were down 0.03 an ounce at $1,133.50.
Gold is taking some support from moves in the wider markets, Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said. “The U.S. dollar is slightly weaker and U.S. bond yields are slightly lower as well,” he said.
“Liquidity will dry up in the run-up to Christmas and the year-end,” he added. “So everything can happen, huge volatility or lacklustre trade.”
Among other precious metals, silver was down 0.4 percent at $16.02 an ounce, off the previous day’s low of $15.59 an ounce, its weakest since April 11. Platinum was 0.2 percent lower at $913.60 an ounce.
Palladium was down 0.9 percent at $658 an ounce, having earlier touched a six-week low of $658.50.
It remains the best performing precious metal this quarter, with a drop of just 8 percent, compared with a 14 percent drop in gold prices and an 11 percent retreat in platinum.
