Gold Price Erases Gains as Fed Speakers Spur Volatility

New York (Aug 26)  Late afternoon saw the yellow metal give up its earlier gains, as central bankers induced notable market moves on Friday. Gold Erases Gains as Fed Speakers Spur Volatility

New York - Bullion erased its previous solid gains late in the afternoon, following a volatile trading session amid the highly anticipated central bank gathering at Jackson Hole on Friday.

In the morning, market participants closely monitored Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Janet Yellen, following on from a number of speeches from some of her colleagues earlier in the week.

Yellen delivered a slightly optimistic speech and pointed to the recent solid data, adding to the belief that the Fed is getting closer to reaching both of its goals - the labor market and inflation.

"Yellen's highly anticipated remarks at Jackson Hole had a hawkish tilt... although with the usual caveats that the timing will be based on how the data unfold," said Avery Shenfeld, chief economist for CIBC Capital Markets.

"Overall, there really is no big surprise here, so we can put the Fed hype aside for now."

Meanwhile, Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer also spoke to reporters, praising the latest data from the labor market. He kept his hawkish tone basically unchanged from his last interview, when he mentioned inflation moving towards the preferred target.

In the afternoon, gold futures were seen 0.05% lower at $1,323.50 an ounce, falling from an intraday high of $1,345.80, while the US dollar index rose 0.64% to 95.29 points.

Source: WebOnLine