Gold remains rangebound ahead of key US data due today

Gold remained stuck within a narrow range around the flatline on Thursday, mirroring international prices as investors globally awaited the release of a key reading from the world’s largest economy. On MCX, gold futures (April) were last seen trading higher by Rs 88, or 0.1 per cent, at Rs 62,337 per 10 grams, while silver futures (March) were up by Rs 706, or one per cent, at Rs 69,409 per kilogram.

Also, remarks by Fed officials this week suggesting the US central bank needs to do more to tame inflation continued to put pressure on the yellow metal in the international market.

All eyes were on US personal consumption expenditure (PCE) data for the month of January due around 7 pm Indian standard time (8:30 am Thursday in the US).

Spot gold was up 0.1 per cent at $2,037.1 an ounce at the last count.

A higher policy rate is negative for non-interest yielding previous yellow metal.

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The composition of the latest US GDP data was much stronger than initially thought, which bodes well for the near-term outlook even as activity got off to a weak start because of freezing temperatures, said Neha Qureshi, Senior Technical and Derivative Research Analyst at Anand Rathi Commodities & Currencies.