logo
Gold Steadies with Focus on US-China Talks, Fed Meeting

Gold Steadies with Focus on US-China Talks, Fed Meeting

Asharq Al-Awsat7 days ago
Gold prices held nearly steady on Tuesday as markets turned their focus to upcoming US-China talks and the Federal Reserve's policy decision.
Spot gold steadied at $3,313.63 per ounce, by 10:05 ET (14:04 GMT). Prices hit their lowest point since July 9 on Monday after a trade deal between the United States and European Union dampened safe haven demand for the yellow metal.
US gold futures was unchanged at $3,311.60.
"The lack of clear details and a defined outline of the announced trade deals... continues to keep market participants on edge," said Zain Vawda, analyst at MarketPulse by OANDA, Reuters reported.
Vawda added that a break below $3,300 could trigger a decline toward the $3,000 level in the medium term.
US and Chinese officials held more than five hours of talks in Stockholm on Monday aimed at extending their trade truce by three months, with discussions set to resume Tuesday.
Analysts note that recent US deals with the EU and Japan offered some relief, but talks with China remain far more complex and prolonged.
On the US interest rate front, the US central bank's two-day policy meeting kicks off later in the day, with rates widely expected to remain unchanged. Investors will closely scrutinize the Fed's commentary for any signals on the timing and pace of potential rate cuts ahead.
Markets are currently pricing in just under 50 basis points of rate cuts by year-end, with October seen as the most likely starting point, said Peter Grant, vice president and senior metals strategist at Zaner Metals.
However, dissent from two Fed members could shift expectations toward a September cut, which could potentially boosting gold, he added.
Gold tends to benefit in a low interest rate environment as the reduced yield on competing assets makes the non-yielding metal more attractive to investors.
Spot silver fell 0.5% to $37.98 per ounce, while platinum was steady at $1,389.85 and palladium slipped 1.2% to $1,232.67.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

OpenAI Releases Open-Weight Reasoning Models Optimized for Running on Laptops
OpenAI Releases Open-Weight Reasoning Models Optimized for Running on Laptops

Asharq Al-Awsat

timean hour ago

  • Asharq Al-Awsat

OpenAI Releases Open-Weight Reasoning Models Optimized for Running on Laptops

OpenAI said on Tuesday it has released two open-weight language models that excel in advanced reasoning and are optimized to run on laptops with performance levels similar to its smaller proprietary reasoning models. An open-weight language model's trained parameters or weights are publicly accessible, which can be used by developers to analyze and fine-tune the model for specific tasks without requiring original training data. "One of the things that is unique about open models is that people can run them locally. People can run them behind their own firewall, on their own infrastructure," OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman said in a press briefing. Open-weight language models are different from open-source models, which provide access to the complete source code, training data and methodologies. The landscape of open-weight and open-source AI models has been highly contested this year. For a time, Meta's Llama models were considered the best, but that changed earlier this year when China's DeepSeek released a powerful and cost-effective reasoning model, while Meta struggled to deliver Llama 4. The two new OpenAI models are the first open models OpenAI has released since GPT-2, which was released in 2019. OpenAI's larger model, gpt-oss-120b, can run on a single GPU, and the second, gpt-oss-20b, is small enough to run directly on a personal computer, the company said. OpenAI said the models have similar performance to its proprietary reasoning models called o3-mini and o4-mini, and especially excel at coding, competition math and health-related queries. The models were trained on a text-only dataset which in addition to general knowledge, focused on science, math and coding knowledge. OpenAI did not release benchmarks comparing the open-weight models to competitors' models such as the DeepSeek-R1 model. Microsoft-backed OpenAI, currently valued at $300 billion, is currently raising up to $40 billion in a new funding round led by Softbank Group.

Zelenskiy Spoke with Trump Ahead of Peace Deal Deadline
Zelenskiy Spoke with Trump Ahead of Peace Deal Deadline

Asharq Al-Awsat

timean hour ago

  • Asharq Al-Awsat

Zelenskiy Spoke with Trump Ahead of Peace Deal Deadline

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that he had had a "productive" conversation with his US counterpart Donald Trump on ending the war, sanctions on Russia and the finalization of a US-Ukraine drone deal. Trump, who has signaled frustration with Vladimir Putin in recent weeks, has given the Russian president until August 8 to make peace in Ukraine or face tougher sanctions. "President Trump is fully informed about Russian strikes on Kyiv and other cities and communities," Zelenskiy wrote on X, referring to intensifying drone and missile attacks. Trump has threatened to hit Russia with new sanctions and impose 100% tariffs on countries that buy its oil, but sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters that Putin was unlikely to bow to the ultimatum. Zelenskiy said Ukraine was also ready to conclude a deal with the US on the purchase of Ukrainian drones that would amount to "one of the strongest agreements". He had earlier said the deal was worth around $30 billion. Ukraine is increasingly seeking financing and investment from its foreign partners to bolster its burgeoning domestic arms industry. Zelenskiy said Kyiv's European partners had so far pledged to buy more than $1 billion in US weapons for Ukraine as part of a new scheme.

Zelenskyy speaks with Trump ahead of Putin ceasefire deadline
Zelenskyy speaks with Trump ahead of Putin ceasefire deadline

Al Arabiya

time2 hours ago

  • Al Arabiya

Zelenskyy speaks with Trump ahead of Putin ceasefire deadline

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that he had had a 'productive' conversation with his US counterpart Donald Trump on ending the war, sanctions on Russia and the finalization of a US-Ukraine drone deal. Trump, who has signaled frustration with Vladimir Putin in recent weeks, has given the Russian president until August 8 to make peace in Ukraine or face tougher sanctions. For the latest updates on the Russia-Ukraine war, visit our dedicated page. 'President Trump is fully informed about Russian strikes on Kyiv and other cities and communities,' Zelenskyy wrote on X, referring to intensifying drone and missile attacks. Trump has threatened to hit Russia with new sanctions and impose 100 percent tariffs on countries that buy its oil, but sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters that Putin was unlikely to bow to the ultimatum. Zelenskyy said Ukraine was also ready to conclude a deal with the US on the purchase of Ukrainian drones that would amount to 'one of the strongest agreements.' He had earlier said the deal was worth around $30 billion. Ukraine is increasingly seeking financing and investment from its foreign partners to bolster its burgeoning domestic arms industry. Zelenskyy said Kyiv's European partners had so far pledged to buy more than $1 billion in US weapons for Ukraine as part of a new scheme.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store