Gold Prices Moved To The Upside Ahead Of Fed Minutes

(RTTNews) - Following the rebound seen in the previous session, the price of gold saw some further upside during trading on Wednesday.

Gold for February rose $10.50 or 0.6 percent to $1,825.10 an ounce after climbing $14.50 or 0.8 percent to $1,814.60 an ounce in the previous session.

The increase in the price of gold came amid a decrease in the value of the U.S. dollar, although the greenback regained ground following the release of the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting.

In electronic trading, the price of gold has pulled back near the unchanged line in reaction to the minutes, which indicated the Fed is preparing to begin reducing the size of its balance sheet soon after raising interest rates.

The advance by the precious metal during regular trading came even though payroll processor ADP released a report showing much stronger than expected private sector job growth in the month of December.

ADP said private sector employment spiked by 807,000 jobs in December after jumping by a revised 505,000 jobs in November.

Economists had expected private sector employment to increase by 400,000 jobs compared to the addition of 534,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

"December's job market strengthened as the fallout from the Delta variant faded and Omicron's impact had yet to be seen," said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson.