PRECIOUS-Gold hits 3-week peak as equities ditched on Trump worries

LONDON, March 22 Gold climbed to a three-week
high on Wednesday as the dollar fell to near six-week lows and
bond yields sank on uncertainty over the economic policies of
U.S. President Donald Trump.
Spot gold was up 0.3 percent at $1,248.68 an ounce by
1453 GMT, close to the session high of $1,250.51.
A lack of concrete policy from the Trump administration is
increasing gold’s attraction as a safe-haven investment,
analysts and traders said.
“It seems that equity investors decided to take some money
off the table, perhaps getting slightly wary about the progress
in President Trump’s legislative agenda,” INTL FCStone analyst
Edward Meir said.
U.S. gold futures rose 0.2 percent to $1,249.20.
The dollar index , which measures the greenback
against a basket of currencies, was down 0.2 percent at a
six-week low of 99.609, its weakest since Feb. 3.
Gold was also supported by a further drop in U.S. Treasury
yields, with the 10-year benchmark yield dipping
below 2.4 percent for the first time since March 1.
Gold has rallied nearly $50 from last Wednesday’s low and
clocked its longest winning streak since early January after a
less hawkish tone on interest rates in the U.S. Federal
Reserve’s latest policy statement.
“The repositioning of investors since the (Fed) meeting
continues unabated, with investors becoming less bearish as a
result of the subdued outlook for rates in 2018,” ANZ analysts
said in a note.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust , the world’s largest
gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.5 percent to 834.40
tonnes on Tuesday after three sessions of outflows.
In other precious metals, spot silver slipped 0.2
percent to $17.52 an ounce, having hit a more than two-week high
of $17.59 in the previous session.
Platinum fell 0.6 percent to $970 and palladium
eased also by 0.6 percent to $790 after hitting its
highest in more than a month at $793.30.

(Additonal reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing
by David Goodman and Dale Hudson)