Gold at 1-week high as Trump remarks on Fed weigh on dollar

By Apeksha Nair

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Gold prices on Tuesday climbed to a one-week high on the back of a weaker dollar, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was "not thrilled" with the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates.

Spot gold rose 0.4 percent to $1,194.81 an ounce at 0701 GMT, after touching $1,196.27 earlier, the highest level since Aug. 14. U.S. gold futures climbed 0.5 percent to $1,200.60 an ounce.

The dollar sagged against major peers and the yen on Tuesday after Trump, in an interview with Reuters, criticised Fed Chair Jerome Powell - his own appointee - for raising interest rates.

"Ultimately (the dollar) is giving much needed strength to gold prices," said Vandana Bharti, assistant vice president of commodity research at SMC Comtrade Ltd. "The dollar index may see further correction up to the level of 95.2 which may assist gold to move upward."

The dollar index was last down 0.30 percent at 95.608.

Gold is highly sensitive to rising U.S. rates as it increases the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.

The U.S. central bank has raised rates twice this year and targets two more hikes, with the next one slated in September. However, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said on Monday he was maintaining his expectation for one more interest rate hike this year.

Meanwhile, investors looked ahead to the release of the Fed's August meeting minutes on Wednesday and the bank's annual policy symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming later this week.

Spot gold may end its current bounce around a resistance at $1,206 per ounce, and then resume its downtrend, Reuters technicals analyst Wang Tao said.

"Until there is a sustained sell-off in the dollar, speculators will be more prone to sell upticks (in gold)," said Stephen Innes, APAC trading head, OANDA.

Markets were also focused on a U.S.-China trade meeting this week, but Trump on Monday said he did not expect much progress from talks with Beijing.

Among other precious metals, spot silver climbed 0.6 percent to $14.79 an ounce. Platinum rose 0.8 percent to $799.90 and palladium edged up 0.3 percent to $913.50.

(Reporting by Apeksha Nair and Sumita Layek in Bengaluru; Editing by Joseph Radford, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Sai Sachin Ravikumar)