BENGALURU: Pal­la­dium retreated on Tuesday as investors took profits after the autocatalyst metal breached $1,550 for the first time due to a worsening supply scenario, while gold held a tight range ahead of US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony.

Spot palladium, which traded as high as $1,554.50 per ounce earlier in the day, was down 0.5 per cent at $1,534 as of 1116 GMT.

Elsewhere, spot gold was barely changed at $1,326 per ounce and US gold futures were steady at $1,328.10 as the dollar remained subdued.

“The market is increasingly getting fed up, listening to the trade developments,” Hansen said, adding that bullion was now looking for further direction from the stock markets and concrete developments in US-China trade relations.

Impetus can now be expected from Fed chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony on US monetary policy and the economy before the Senate Banking Committee, due later in the day.

“As long as geopolitical risks, concerns over plateauing global growth and speculation over the Fed taking a pause on rate hikes remain key themes, gold is insulated from extreme downside shocks,” Lukman Otunuga, research analyst at FXTM, said in a note.

Elsewhere, silver fell 0.2pc to $15.86 per ounce, while platinum was down 0.4pc at $845.50, retracing from $857.50, its highest since early November.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2019