FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold held its ground at $1,786.92 per ounce, as of 0009 GMT. U.S. gold futures were up 0.1% to$1,799.10.
* Gold on Wednesday was supported by a pullback in the dollar and U.S. bond yields as investors anticipate slower rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve at its policy meeting next week.
* Market participants mostly expect a 50-basis point rate hike at the Fed’s final meeting of 2022 scheduled on Dec. 13-14.
* Higher interest rates tend to increase the opportunity cost of holding gold as it yields no interest.
* SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 0.2% to 908.09 tonnes on Wednesday.
* Top bullion consumer China held 63.67 million fine troy ounces of gold at the end of November, up from 62.64 million ounces at end-October.
* Meanwhile, China’s exports and imports shrank at their steepest pace in at least 2-1/2 years in November, as feeble global and domestic demand, COVID-led production disruptions and a property slump at home piled pressure on the world’s second-biggest economy.
* The Perth Mint’s sales of gold products in November dropped nearly 38% from the previous month, while silver sales fell to its lowest in more than a year, the refiner said in a blog post on Wednesday.
* Spot silver inched 0.2% lower to $22.68, platinum rose 0.2% to $1,004.62 and palladium gained 0.1% to $1,846.91.
