Gold marches higher as dollar collapses to 11-month lows
Investing.com - Gold prices extended overnight gains in North American trade on Tuesday, as the dollar tanked after a second attempt by Republicans to replace Obamacare failed, delivering a major policy blow to the Trump administration.
Comex gold futures were at $1,240.46 a troy ounce by 9:35AM ET (1335GMT), up $6.70, or around 0.6%, after touching its highest since July 3 at $1,241.92 earlier in the session.
Prices settled higher for a second-straight session on Monday on bets that lackluster U.S. data will keep the Federal Reserve cautious about the future pace of policy tightening.
The dollar took a hit after Republican Senators Jerry Moran and Mike Lee announced their opposition to a revised Republican healthcare bill late on Monday.
Investors were now more doubtful over the future of the Trump administration's planned tax reforms, given the difficulty the healthcare bill has faced in making progress.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, touched its lowest since August last year at 94.28.
Fading expectations for another rate hike by the Federal Reserve this year further weighed on the greenback. Futures traders are pricing in less than a 40% chance of a rate hike by December, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Also on the Comex, silver futures tacked on 10.2 cents, or roughly 0.6%, to $16.20 a troy ounce.
Among other precious metals, platinum was up 0.2% at $931.75, while palladium was little changed at $866.80 an ounce.
Related Articles
U.S. natural gas rallies to 2-week high as July heatwave spreads
Oil jumps on hopes Libya will join supply-cut deal; API data ahead