2018.07.3114:12:00UTC+00Gold Edges Higher Ahead Of Fed Policy

After edging lower over the past three sessions, gold rebounded after a weak start on Tuesday, even as the dollar strengthened against most major currencies ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy statement.

However, with chances of a rate hike not high this month, the dollar's rise remained less pronounced. Markets look ahead to Fed's statement for clues about future rate hikes. It is expected that the fed will raise rates at least twice in the next four months.

The Bank of England, which concludes its monetary policy meeting on Thursday, is widely expected to raise rates by 25 basis points.

The Bank of Japan, which came out with its policy statement Tuesday morning, held rates unchanged but announced some tweaks to make its policy framework more flexible for the long-term yield target.

Gold futures for August were up $1.40, or 0.11%, at $1,222.70 an ounce. Gold futures for December, the most active contract, settled at $1,233.60 an ounce, up $2.10, or 0.2%. Despite today's uptick, gold futures posted losses for a fourth straight month.

Silver futures for September were up $0.033, or 0.21%, at $15.570 an ounce. Copper futures for September were higher by $0.040, or 1.43%, at $2.832 per pound.

According to a report released by the Conference Board, U.S. consumer confidence showed a modest rebound in the month of July, after an unexpected deterioration in the previous month. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index inched up to 127.4 in July from an upwardly revised 127.1 in June. Economists had expected the index to rise to 127.0 from the 126.4 originally reported for the previous month.

The uptick by the headline index reflected an improvement in consumers' assessment of present-day conditions, with the present situation index climbing to 165.9 in July from 161.7 in June.

The percent of consumers saying business conditions are "good" rose to 38.0 percent from 37.2 percent, while those saying conditions are "bad" dipped to 10.1 percent from 11.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the report showed a continued drop in consumers' optimism about the short-term outlook, as the expectations index fell to 101.7 in July from 104.0 in June.