Gold prices fell slightly on February 21 morning. Markets are waiting for the publication of the minutes of the February meeting of the US Federal Reserve System (FRS), Report informs referring to the auction data.
The price of April futures for gold on the New York Comex exchange fell by $4.15, or 0.22%, to $1,846.15 per troy ounce. March silver futures fell 0.5% to $21.707 an ounce.
The minutes of the February meeting of the US Federal Reserve are expected to be published on February 22, the document may contain clues about further monetary policy. According to CME Group, 81.9% of analysts in March expect the US discount rate to rise again by 0.25 percentage points, to 4.75-5% per annum.
In anticipation of another increase in the discount rate, as well as possible “hawkish” signals from the Fed on policy, the dollar is further strengthening - in particular, against the euro and the yen. This in itself is a negative factor for gold: the precious metal is becoming less accessible to holders of other currencies, in addition, dollar assets, mainly US government bonds, are an alternative to gold as a direction of “reliable” investment.