Gold prices fall ahead of US Federal Reserve meeting

Gold prices fell slightly on February 1, as the markets are waiting for the decision of the US Federal Reserve System (FRS), Report informs referring to stock quotes.

The price of April gold futures on the New York Comex exchange fell by $4.15, or 0.21%, to $1,941.15 per troy ounce. March silver futures fell 0.34% to $23.755 an ounce.

The Fed meeting remains one of the main events of the beginning of the year for financial markets. Its results will be announced later on February 1. According to the CME Group, 98% of analysts are considering an increase in the discount rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 4.5-4.75% per annum.

Over the past year, the regulator has also consistently raised this rate in the fight against high inflation, which is slowing somewhat, but not much, and still far from the Fed’s target.

Gold is sensitive to signals from the Fed. The tightening of monetary policy in the country strengthens the dollar and increases the yield of US government debt, which is negative, firstly, for gold as a commodity, and secondly, for precious metal futures as an alternative "protective" financial instrument.