Investing.com - Gold prices rose on Thursday in Asia following the FOMC’s decision to abandon any expectation of a rate hike in 2019.
Gold futures were up 1.3% at $1318.45 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange by 1:00 AM ET (05:00 GMT).
The precious metal began its rally overnight when the Federal Reserve released its latest monthly policy statement on interest rates.
The Fed left rates unchanged at its March meeting amid concerns over slowing growth both domestically and abroad. The central bank has signalled for months now that it has no intention to unravel U.S. economic growth with disruptive rate hikes.
The decision was more than dovish than markets expected and was cited as supportive for the safe-haven gold.
Gold is highly sensitive to interest rates, as lower rates tend to pressure the dollar and increase investor interest in non-yielding bullion.
Elsewhere, Sino-U.S. trade development made headlines today. U.S. President Donald Trump said he’ll keep tariffs on China “for a substantial period of time.”
“We’re not talking about removing them, we’re talking about leaving them for a substantial period of time, because we have to make sure that if we do the deal with China that China lives by the deal,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
“They’ve had a lot of problems living by certain deals.”
His comments confused some traders, as he also said a deal is “coming along nicely.”
It was reported on Wednesday that U.S. officials are concerned Beijing might refuse to accept U.S. demands in trade talks due to the lack of assurances that tariffs imposed on Chinese goods would be lifted once a deal is struck.