Gold prices edge lower on firmer dollar

Gold prices slipped on Monday, as a stronger U.S. dollar made the greenback-priced metal more expensive for buyers holding other currencies.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was down 0.2% at $1,752.66 per ounce, as of 0016 GMT. U.S. gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,751.80.

* The dollar index was up 0.3%.

* Most market participants are pricing in a 50 basis-point interest rate increase at the Federal Reserve‘s December meeting after minutes of the U.S. central bank’s last policy meeting signalled a slower pace of rate hikes.

* Lower interest rates make gold attractive in comparison to interest-yielding assets while weighing on the dollar.

* SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 0.2% to 908.96 tonnes on Friday from 906.93 tonnes on Wednesday.

* Hundreds of demonstrators and police clashed in Shanghai on Sunday night as protests over China’s stringent COVID restrictions flared for a third day and spread to several cities in the wake of a deadly fire in the country’s far west.

* Ghana has ordered all large-scale mining companies to sell 20% of their entire stock of refined gold at their refineries to the Bank of Ghana from Jan. 1, 2023, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia said on Facebook on Friday.

* Spot silver slipped 1.3% to $21.31, platinum fell 0.4% to $976.28 and palladium declined 0.6% to $1,840.97.