Gold rises as Fed keeps U.S. interest rates steady

By Arpan Varghese

REUTERS - Gold edged up on Thursday, as the dollar weakened after the U.S. Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged at its first

meeting since President Donald Trump's inauguration.

Spot gold rose 0.44 percent, to $1,214.45 per ounce at 0321 GMT, while U.S. gold futures were up 0.7 percent, to $1,216.7.

The dollar index edged lower 0.1 percent to to 99.540.

The Fed kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday in its first meeting since President Donald Trump took office, but painted a relatively upbeat picture of the U.S. economy that suggested it was on track to tighten monetary policy this year.

"I see gold being slightly bid in the short term as the dollar weakness continues … non-commercial longs speculating on the dollar index have been trimming their positions since the beginning of the year and the Fed appears to remain dovish or wait and see," said Nicholas Frappell, General Manager with ABC Bullion

Spot gold may retest a resistance at $1,219 per ounce, as it has found a support at $1,197, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.

"The sharp rebound after a pull down below $1,200 and the Asian pricing model, despite the Chinese New Year, seems favorable and we see a lot of bullish signals," said Spencer Campbell, General Manager with Kaloti Precious Metals, Singapore.

"We are sort of eyeing the $1,225 levels in the next move if the metal breaks the recent highs of around $1,215 levels next week."

The yellow metal gained more than 5 percent in January - its best month since June 2016 - as the dollar suffered its worst start to the year in three decades."

"The global growth story seems to be improving immeasurably just as the political outlook grows increasingly cloudy across a number of geographies, which is why we are on balance, friendly to gold heading into a very uncertain year," said INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir.

Factories across the world fired up - or at least kept up - activity in January with some registering multi-year output highs, just as a barrage of political risks threatens the global economy with potential harm.

Meanwhile, investors also turned their attention to a quarterly report from the Bank of England on Thursday. The BoE was expected to avoid adding to speculation about a first interest rate hike in nearly a decade, even as it acknowledges the resilience of Britain's economy since last year's Brexit vote shock.

In other precious metals, spot silver rose 0.34 percent, to $17.57 per ounce, while platinum was up 0.35 percent, to $999.49. Platinum earlier touched $1004.6, a peak since Nov. 10, 2016.

Palladium was mostly unchanged at $762.50 per ounce.

(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Joseph Radford)