World gold prices increased slightly this morning with spot gold increasing by 2.5 USD to 1,992.1 USD/ounce. Gold futures last traded at 1,993.3 USD/ounce, up 0.5 USD compared to yesterday morning.
World gold prices in the evening session of November 23 (Vietnam time) were stable during the Thanksgiving holiday. Analysts do not expect to see many price increases for the rest of the week as most traders are currently focused on this holiday and the "Black Friday" shopping festival.
Entering the holiday season, the gold market could not maintain a new increase above 2,000 USD/ounce as the market continued to monitor the minutes of the latest policy meeting from the US Federal Reserve (Fed). Although the central bank left interest rates unchanged in its latest meeting, the minutes showed the committee was maintaining a hawkish stance as it expected to keep interest rates restrained for the foreseeable future.
Since late last week, gold has been strongly supported as expectations that the Fed has completed its interest rate hike cycle have been increasing after a series of published reports showing cooling inflation. Wednesday's hawkish Fed minutes and Wednesday's strong labor market data made investors hesitant to predict the Fed's next monetary policy move. Rising expectations that the Fed will keep interest rates “higher for longer” and a decline in the likelihood that it will begin cutting rates in the first half of 2024 have limited gold's gains.
Despite this, some experts still maintain optimism that gold prices will eventually move higher as seasonal factors could play a larger role in price action and be positive for gold.