Gold is stable in the third session as investors await the FED's Jackson Hole conference taking place this weekend to find clues about the possibility of interest rate cuts, while considering Washington's efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole conference on August 21 to 23 could provide more clarity on the central bank's economic outlook and policy orientation.
Gold is still in the accumulation phase and is really waiting for a new driver to break out. I think the big event to watch is Jackson Hole and whether the Fed will give a signal of easing or not, said Kyle Rodda, a financial market analyst at Capital.com.
According to the CME FedWatch tool, the market currently rates an 84% chance that the FED will cut interest rates by 25 basis points at the next meeting. Gold often benefits in a low interest rate environment and when uncertainty increases.
The minutes of the Fed's July meeting, due out on Wednesday, will also provide further policy clues.
Spot gold prices rose 0.2% to $3,337.62 an ounce at 6:09 a.m. GMT. December gold futures in the US increased 0.1% to $3,381.5 an ounce.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Washington would help secure Ukraine in any agreement to end the war with Russia. Trump described the meeting with Zelensky as very good and said on social media that he had called Russian President Vladimir Putin, starting a meeting between Putin and Zelensky.
Trump welcomed Zelensky and a group of European allies just days after he met with Putin in Alaska, but the meeting was ruled over and no agreement was reached.
In another development, UBS Bank raised its gold price forecast for the end of March 2026 by $100 to $3,600/ounce, due to prolonged macroeconomic risks in the US, declining use of the USD and strong investment demand.
Rhona OConnell - Head of EMEA & Asia Market Analysis at StoneX has just raised the annual gold price forecast to $3,115/ounce, up 1% from the previous estimate of $3,078/ounce.
OConnell noted that gold prices have only fluctuated within a 2% range over the past week and around 8% over the past three months.
In the third quarter, she forecasts gold will average around $3,320/ounce. However, in the last three months of the year, the average could be around $3,000/ounce.
Currently, spot silver prices have decreased by 0.3% to 37.88 USD/ounce, platinum has decreased by 0.1% to 1,321.58 USD, while palladium has lost 1.1% to 1,110.53 USD.
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