Gold Edges Lower Amid Gulf Unrest
(RTTNews) - Gold prices edged lower on Monday as investors monitored the situation in oil markets and looked forward to the release of U.S. consumer and producer price inflation data due this week, which could impact expectations for the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting later this month.
CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently indicates an 82.8 percent chance the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged after last month's quarter point rate hike.
However, the central bank is still widely expected to raise rates by another quarter point at its December meeting.
Spot gold dipped half a percent to $4,174.39 an ounce after rising to a one-week high on Friday. U.S. gold futures were down 0.4 percent at $4,197.20.
The U.S. dollar held steady near its strongest level in a year and a half after Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis stepped up strikes on Saudi Arabia.
Two tankers were attacked over the weekend, heightening concerns over further disruptions to Middle East crude supplies and offsetting hopes of Russia-Ukraine energy ceasefire.
Oil prices traded higher in early European trade despite U.S. President Donald Trump announcing a diesel deal with Russia and claiming that Russia and Ukraine agreed to an "energy ceasefire" and will halt attacks on each other's energy facilities.
