Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

Tranquility is returning to the gold market.

After a 10-day selloff that sent prices to the lowest in five years, the pressure is starting to ease. Gold futures alternated between gains and losses in the last five days, and were little changed at $1,096.80 an ounce at 6:19 a.m. on the Comex in New York.

“We’re in the calm after the storm,” Jens Pedersen, an analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen, said by phone. “Now we’ll see if the bad weather will pick up again after the Fed meeting.”

Bullion fell 6.4 percent in July, putting the metal on track for the biggest monthly retreat in two years, on concern that demand from China is slowing and U.S. interest rates will soon increase. Prices will drop to $984 before January, according to the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 16 analysts and traders.

Federal Reserve officials will release a statement on Wednesday that may signal when they plan to start tightening. While economists see no chance the central bank will raise rates this week, they put the odds of a September increase at about 50 percent, a Bloomberg survey published July 22 showed.

An average of 270,477 gold futures changed hands in the past seven days, the most since January, according to exchange data compiled by Bloomberg.

Gold assets in exchange-traded products have declined for nine days. Holdings shrank 3.1 percent since July 15, the fastest drop in two years, and stood at 1,539.4 metric tons, according to data compiled by Bloomberg as of Tuesday.

Palladium for September delivery rose 0.5 percent at $624.85 an ounce. Silver and platinum were little changed.