Investing.com -- Gold prices ticked higher on Wednesday in trading largely subdued by anticipation of the Federal Reserve’s statement after its policy-making meeting.
No interest rate change is expected, leaving the main focus on the guidance that comes from the Fed’s statement and accompanying materials, notably the ‘dot plot’ of Fed officials’ expectations for the future course of rates.
The lack of visible progress in trade negotiations between the U.S. and China has kept gold prices well supported this week. There is still no clear sign that the two sides will be able to agree any meaningful steps to de-escalate trade tensions before Sunday, when the next round of tariffs on imports from China is due to come into force.
By 12:05 PM ET (1705 GMT), gold futures for delivery on the Comex exchange were up 0.5% at $1,475.85 a troy ounce, having earlier hit an intraday high of $1,477.45 on the back of data showing a surprise build in U.S. oil stocks last week.
Spot gold was at $1,471.13 an ounce, also up 0.5% on the day.
Silver futures were up 1.0% at $16.87 an ounce while platinum futures were up 1.6% at $937.40.
Elsewhere, copper futures, which tend to move in inverse direction to haven assets because of their correlation to industrial demand, hit a new seven-month high of $2.797 a pound. That followed data showing stronger-than-expected demand from China, the world’s biggest consumer of the metal, in November.
China’s year-on-year copper imports rose 0.3%, in contrast to expectations of a 1.8% drop. That also marked the first year-on-year growth since April.