Gold prices hover near two-week low as rate cut bets ease
investors pared expectations of a U.S. interest rate cut after the Federal Reserve's latest meeting indicated that a delay in monetary policy easing is likely.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold rose 0.2% to $2,338.85 per ounce, as of 0211 GMT. Prices hit its lowest since May 9 at $2,325.19 on Friday.
* U.S. gold futures were up 0.3% at $2,340.20.
* Bullion hit a record high of $2,449.89 earlier last week, but has shed more than $100 since then.
* Fed officials indicated that it would take longer than previously anticipated to gain greater confidence in inflation moving to 2%, according to the minutes of the U.S. central bank's April 30-May 1 meeting.
* Traders' bets signalled growing doubts that the Fed will cut rates more than once in 2024, currently pricing in about a 62% chance of a rate cut by November, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
* Bullion is known as an inflation hedge, but higher rates increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding gold.
* At least five people were killed and several others were missing after an informal gold mine collapsed in northern Kenya, officials and local media said.
* BHP's resolve to add more copper to its portfolio will be tested by Anglo American investors' demands for a simpler offer for the whole company or a cash sweetener to clinch a deal that could become the biggest in mining history.
* Profits at China's industrial firms rose 4.3% in the first four months from the same period last year, official data showed.
* Spot silver rose 0.8% to $30.59 per ounce,
