Gold prices rose on Wednesday as the dollar weakened against most major currencies, while markets evaluated the Federal Reserve’s policy decisions.
The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged at just below 5.5%, in line with expectations.
This marks the ninth consecutive meeting where the Fed has held interest rates steady since initiating its policy tightening in March 2022.
The Fed anticipates that inflation will approach its 2% target, which could allow for future interest rate cuts, though it did not specify a timeline.
At the press conference, Fed Chair Jerome Powell mentioned that the central bank might consider cutting interest rates at the September meeting if current data trends persist.
He emphasized that policymakers will consider all data inputs when deciding on the timing of the next interest rate reduction.
Earlier U.S. data indicated that the private sector added 122,000 jobs last month, falling short of the 147,000 estimate.
Meanwhile, the dollar index dropped 0.5% to 104.07 by 21:00 GMT, with a session high of 104.5 and a low of 103.9.
In trading, December gold futures increased by 0.85%, or $21.1, reaching a record high of $2,473 an ounce, with the yellow metal posting a monthly gain of 3.65%.
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