Gold prices rise on release of March Fed meeting minutes

Gold prices rose today, April 7, following the release of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) March meeting minutes, coinciding with the intensification of geopolitical tensions over Ukraine.

Notes from the Federal Reserve's March meeting showed that officials "generally agreed" to cut up to $95 billion a month from the central bank's asset holdings as another measure to combat the surging inflation.

Gold futures contracts for June delivery rose by 0.42% to reach $1,931.20 per ounce at 2:20pm Makkah time. Spot price for the yellow metal gained 0.17% to reach $1,928.68 per ounce.

Elsewhere, silver futures for May delivery increased by 0.29% to reach $24.53 an ounce.

Spot price for platinum delivery grew 0.36% to reach $953.43, while palladium gained 0.95% to reach $2,221.55 per ounce.

The main dollar index, which measures the performance of the US currency against a basket of six currencies, settled at 99.671 points.

US unemployment weekly claims data for last week is scheduled to be released later today amid expectations of recording 201,000 claims.