news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Gold prices held steady near record highs after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell confirmed the central bank will start cutting interest rates next month.

Last Friday, Powell said in a speech at Jackson Hole that "the time has come to shift to monetary easing," explicitly aimed at preventing the U.S. labor market from cooling further.

Gold prices surged 1.1% on Friday before holding steady in early Asian trading on Monday, trading near $2,510 an ounce.

Gold prices have surged more than 20% this year, with the strong gains partly due to optimistic expectations that the Federal Reserve will soon shift to an easing policy. In addition, increased geopolitical risks and uncertainty ahead of the U.S. November election have also boosted gold's safe-haven demand, while purchases by central banks and Asian consumers have further driven gold prices higher.

As of 10:02 am Beijing time, the spot gold price was stable at $2,513.77 per ounce, having hit a record high of $2,531.75 per ounce last week. Meanwhile, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index remained flat, having fallen 1.2% last week. In contrast, silver prices did not change much, while platinum and palladium fell.

This week, the United States will see the release of a series of key economic data, which are likely to reshape the market's expectations of the Fed's rate cut pace. The July Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE), released on Friday, is the Fed's core indicator for measuring inflation, and its changes will directly affect the market's sensitive nerves.

At the same time, tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate, becoming an external risk factor that investors cannot ignore. Israel's preemptive strike on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon last weekend not only exacerbated regional instability, but could also trigger a wider chain reaction, further pushing up market risk aversion.