Gold prices fall

LONDON. — Gold prices fell to a near one-week low yesterday on speculation that the eventual successor to US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will favour higher interest rates, denting bullion's appeal.

Spot gold was down 0,4 percent at $1 289,20 an ounce as of 1209 GMT, while US gold futures for December delivery slipped 0,9 percent to $1 291,70 per ounce.

“It's partly (the possibility of a Hawkish Fed chair) and that the Fed is going to and needs to hike rates this year that is contributing to a bullish dollar environment,” Martin Arnold, commodities analyst at ETF Securities, said.

US President Donald Trump was favouring policy hawk John Taylor as the next head of the Fed, Bloomberg reported, pushing the dollar higher and lifting US Treasury yields.

Taylor, a Stanford economist, is seen as more likely to raise rates than Yellen, which would boost the dollar and dent gold and US Treasuries.

Trump will meet with Yellen tomorrow as part of his search for a new candidate for her position, a source familiar with the planned meeting said.

The Fed will probably need to raise rates in December and then three or four times “over the course of next year', assuming US unemployment continues to fall and inflation rises, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said.