The price of gold has hardly changed today

Gold prices stabilized today after falling significantly yesterday. In the course of trading continues to influence the strengthening of the US dollar and expectations of an early Fed rate increase.

"The dollar is still the most important driver for gold," - said Georgette Boele, strategist at ABN Amro Group NV. She expects that the precious metal will rise to $ 1370 by the end of the year. "However, short-term sentiment slightly negative for the metal", - added Boulay. Despite the recent losses, with the beginning of the year yellow metal rose by almost 14%, as investors seek refuge in conditions of instability in financial markets and concerns about the global economic downturn.

This week, a number of comments by the Fed indicated that a rate hike could happen in the next few months. Rising interest rates usually puts pressure on gold, which does not interest, and it is difficult to compete with income instruments when borrowing costs rise. Currently, the interest rate futures on the Fed show that there is a 75 percent chance of a rate hike by the end of the year. It is worth emphasizing the month before the likelihood of such a step was 42 percent. "In February, many feared softer Fed's position, but now economists believe that there will be two rate increase, and this may have a downward pressure on the gold price," - said strategist at ING Bank Hamza Khan.

Little support for gold had weak US data. The US Commerce Department said that orders for manufactured durable goods decreased overall in the last month against the backdrop of weak global growth, as low oil prices and financial instability continue to put pressure on companies costs. New orders for durable goods fell by a seasonally adjusted 2.8% in February compared with the previous month. Economists had expected overall orders to fall by 2.9% in February compared with the previous month. Falling new orders for all durable goods followed a growth in January, has suggested a glimmer of hope to the troubled manufacturing sector. Revised January growth was lowered to increase by 4.2% compared with the earlier estimate of growth by 4.7%.

In addition, reports show that investors continue to buy the metal through exchange-traded funds. Gold reserves in the largest gold ETF-fund SPDR Gold Trust rose yesterday to 1768.1 tonnes, the highest level since March 2014.

April futures price of gold on COMEX today fell to $ 1220.50 per ounce.