Spot gold prices are trading narrowly higher Tuesday after closing the previous session unchanged. Gold ended Monday’s session marginally lower at $1589.38 a troy ounce, with prices advancing from session lows of around $1578 upon the release of some weak US retail sales data, which in turn pushed the USD lower as speculation levels grew that the Federal Reserve may have to indulge in another round of stimulus measures to try and shore up the world’s largest economy. Prices in gold are expected to remain underpinned ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s Congressional testimony, where market participants in gold will be searching for clues on whether the US central bank will unleash another round of quantitative easing (QE). Yesterday’s release of weaker than expected US retails sales was perfect timing for the gold hawks that have been present in the market buying dips in the precious metal amid hopes of some additional stimulus measures from the Fed, despite the fact that Bernanke has warned on previous occasions that the motion remains unlikely in the short term. Spot gold currently trades $1592.90.
EasyForexNews Research Team