January 24, 2017
Gold Hits 2-Month High as Dollar Drops on Trump Uncertainty
(Reuters) - Gold prices hit their highest in two months on Tuesday, pushed up as the dollar weakened due to suspicions President Donald Trump's administration might seek a competitive advantage through a weaker currency.
Spot gold prices were firm at $1,217.81 per ounce by 0056 GMT. They earlier touched their strongest since Nov. 22 at $1,219.59.
U.S. gold futures were up 0.1 percent at $1,217.40 per ounce.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.1 percent to 100.030
Trump formally withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and told U.S. manufacturing executives he would impose a hefty border tax on firms that import products after moving American factories overseas.
The Bank of England will leave its record-low interest rates and other stimulus measures unchanged at least until 2019, even though it is likely to revise up its 2017 growth predictions again next week, a Reuters poll found on Monday.
Jeffrey Lacker, the hawkish president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said on Monday he is worried inflation could surge unless the U.S. central bank raises interest rates faster than his fellow policymakers anticipate.
China had a significantly larger fiscal deficit in 2016 than it targeted, according to a Reuters calculation based on preliminary data released on Monday by the Finance Ministry.
Japan's government has kept unchanged the overall assessment of the economy made last month - that it is recovering gradually though pockets of weakness remain.
"Despite heightened uncertainty, we think Q1 2017 is still stacked unfavorably for gold given the fragile market in India ahead of the union budget (on Feb. 1) and the rising probability of U.S. rate hikes," Standard Chartered said in a note.
Centamin, which runs Egypt's only commercial gold mine, said it would not bid in the country's new gold exploration tender because the terms are not commercially viable.
Russia is expected to sell discounted rights to one of the world's largest untapped gold deposits this week to a joint venture of miner Polyus and a state conglomerate, industry sources and analysts said, after sanctions and restrictions discouraged other bidders.