Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled lower on Monday, ahead of a two-day U.S. Federal Reserve meeting.
The most active gold contract for April delivery gave up its earlier modest gains and closed 1.40 U.S. dollars lower, or down 0.11 percent, at 1,301.50 dollars per ounce.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.08 percent to 96.62 as of 1722 GMT, shortly before the settlement of gold futures.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street stock benchmarks posted moderate gains, with all the indexes edging up.
When the dollar and equities go up, gold futures will usually fall, as gold, priced in the dollar, becomes expensive for investors holding other currencies, and investors are also lured to the stock markets.
The U.S. Federal Reserve Open Market Committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday and Wednesday, with market participants focusing on the Fed's policy statement at the end of the meeting.
Investors expect the Fed to maintain its wait-and-see approach to monetary policy, as Fed has become more dovish in the past few months.
As for other precious metals, silver for May delivery was down 0.2 cent, or 0.01 percent to close at 15.322 dollars per ounce. Platinum for April delivery was up 2.2 dollars, or 0.26 percent, to settle at 834.00 dollars per ounce.
Source: Xinhua |
