Global gold prices returned to decline during today's trading, Thursday, amid a rise in the dollar index, after the issuance of the latest Federal Reserve minutes, and investors' attention to developments in the US debt ceiling negotiations and increased their concerns in this regard.
And by 08:00 am GMT, gold futures contracts for June delivery fell by 0.28%, to $ 1959.15 an ounce.
On the other hand, the dollar index rose at the same time by 0.24% to 104.043 points.
Representatives of US Democratic President Joe Biden and Republicans concluded a new round of debt ceiling talks on Wednesday without any signs of progress in raising the $31.4 trillion federal debt ceiling.
This came amid a new warning from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that the federal government will not have enough funds to pay all its obligations by next June 1; What could lead to a default would harm the US economy and exacerbate the cost of borrowing.
Gold's decline came after the US Federal Reserve issued the minutes of its last meeting in May yesterday, Wednesday, when it raised interest rates to 5.25%, and also revealed a state of uncertainty about the policy of raising interest rates after the June meeting. The minutes also referred to fears that the US debt ceiling crisis would lead to greater restrictions on the economy.
Minutes of the meeting, released on Wednesday, showed that Fed officials were divided at their latest meeting over the future direction of interest rates, with some members seeing the need for further increases while others expected a slowdown in growth to remove the need for further tightening.
Investors are looking forward to getting more indications of the Fed's decision at the current June meeting, through the minutes of its last meeting.
