Market News

(Bloomberg) -- Gold steadied, as traders looked beyond tensions in Venezuela toward a busy lineup of economic data in the US. Silver rose for a third day.

Spot gold was little changed near $4,450 an ounce, after rising 2.7% in the previous session following the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Uncertainty hangs over governance of the South American nation after President Donald Trump said the US plans to “run” the country. Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as acting president.

Traders are turning their attention to a slew of US economic data due this week, headlined by the December jobs report on Friday. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said on Monday that interest rates may be close to a neutral level for the US economy, leaving it to the incoming data to guide the central bank’s actions.

The escalation in Venezuela provided a short-term boost to gold’s safe-haven demand, but its impact “may be limited” unless tensions in the Caribbean rise further, Dilin Wu, a strategist at Pepperstone Group Ltd., said in a note.

Gold is fresh from posting its best annual performance since 1979, hitting a series of record highs throughout last year with support from central-bank buying and inflows to bullion-backed exchange-traded funds. Three successive rate cuts by the Fed were also a tailwind for precious metals, which don’t pay interest.

Bullion hit an all-time high of $4,549.92 on Dec. 26. Some leading banks forecast further gains this year, especially with the Fed expected to deliver additional rate reductions and Trump reshaping the US central bank’s leadership. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said last month that its base case was for a rally to $4,900 an ounce, with risks to the upside.

In the near term, however, there’s concern that a broad rebalancing of commodity indexes might put pressure on prices. The record-breaking rallies in gold and silver could push passive tracking funds to sell some contracts to match new weightings, beginning Thursday.

Silver rose as much as 3.6% on Tuesday. In China, LONGi Green Energy Technology Co. said it would begin substituting base metals for silver in its solar cells in the latest move by the industry to mitigate the surging cost of the white metal.

Gold edged up 0.1% to $4,451.96 an ounce as of 10:34 a.m. in London. Silver rose 1.7% to $77.90 an ounce. Platinum climbed 1% and palladium was little changed. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, a gauge of the US currency’s strength, was up 0.1%.

--With assistance from Jack Ryan.