Gold holds above $1,290

Gold steadied above $1,290 an ounce on Wednesday, largely clinging to gains from the previous session, as focus turned to whether a weaker global economy may curb the US Federal Reserve’s enthusiasm to raise interest rates.
The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to release a statement at the end of its two-day policy meeting later on Wednesday and a dovish bias could support a non-interest bearing asset such as gold.
Spot gold was little changed at $1,291.10 an ounce by 0321 GMT, after rising nearly 1 percent on Tuesday. Bullion hit a five-month high of $1,306.20 last week.
The metal is consolidating at around $1,290 ahead of the Fed’s statement which may not offer any surprise, said Howie Lee, investment analyst at Phillip Futures.
“I think it’ll be mostly a non-event. The Fed will probably stick to the status quo and if that proves to be true then gold should continue to hover between $1,270 and $1,290 in the near term,” Lee said.