(RTTNews) – Gold ticked higher on Monday as the dollar dipped on Iran peace deal hopes and after joint intervention by the United States and Japan to prop up the Japanese yen.
Spot gold edged up 0.3 percent to $4,052.78 an ounce while U.S. gold futures were marginally higher at $4,108.87.
The yen surged against the dollar after Japan and the United States conducted coordinated yen-buying intervention and vowed they will not hesitate to take further action.
While U.S. President Donald Trump called the move a “signal of friendship”, Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama warned jittery currency markets of further intervention if volatility persisted.
On the geopolitical font, U.S.-Iran peace talks are expected to resume today after Middle Eastern allies, including Saudi Arabia, urged Washington to prioritize diplomacy.
Brent crude futures fell nearly 5 percent toward $83 a barrel after Trump held off on a fresh attack on Iran and said an agreement was close, signaling renewed diplomatic momentum.
Trump said a planned large-scale military strike on Iran was called off on the condition that efforts to quickly reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resolve the impasse over Tehran’s nuclear capabilities move forward.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that the memorandum of understanding with the U.S. would become the cornerstone of Tehran’s future foreign relations.
Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations between Tehran and Oman over the management of the Strait of Hormuz are in their final stages.
U.S. Treasury yields edged down but remain elevated on worries about inflation staying high because of the U.S.-Iran war.
In a statement explaining his dissenting vote against holding the Fed’s key overnight borrowing rate steady, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said that he believes small hikes now can prevent the need for larger moves later.
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack argued that the longer that high inflation persists, the more challenging and costly it can be to bring it back down to 2 percent.
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