Gold Soars on Eased Rate Hike Expectations Following Waller Comments
Gold prices surged more than 2% on Thursday as market expectations for an interest rate hike in September eased, following comments from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller.
The spot gold price rose 2.3% to $4,488.54 per ounce by 02:04 p.m. ET (1804 GMT), reaching its highest since August 28 earlier in the session.
Waller's statement that he would support leaving interest rates unchanged if data continues to show inflation pressures moderating led traders to scale back their rate hike expectations, with a now 54% chance of a hike at the September 15-16 meeting, down from about 62% previously.
'I think traders are looking at the Fed being less aggressive with rates,' said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at StoneX. 'More and more traders are coming around to the idea that there probably isn't much more they can do with rates after one hike.'