Yihui Xie and Preeti Soni
November 17, 2025 2 min read
(Bloomberg) — Gold slipped amid dwindling expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates until a backlog of data provides a clearer picture of the world’s biggest economy.
A faction of Fed policymakers has stepped up warnings that inflation progress could slow or stall, casting doubt over the prospects for another rate cut in December. Meanwhile, Fed Governor Christopher Waller repeated his view that the central bank should again lower interest rates when policymakers meet next month citing a weak labor market and monetary policy that is hurting low- and middle-income consumers. Lower interest rates typically make non-yielding bullion more appealing to investors.
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Investors and policymakers are awaiting a flurry of data held up by the longest US government shutdown in history. A six-week absence of reliable statistics on the American labor market and inflation made some officials increasingly reluctant to commit to further monetary easing. Interest rate swaps now imply a less-than-50% likelihood of a December rate cut after all but pricing in a quarter-point reduction less than a month ago.
“The shutdown is over, but the data fog it created is still clouding markets — the next few weeks will deliver numbers we barely have a handle on,” said Hebe Chen, a strategist at Vantage Markets in Melbourne. “That keeps the Fed’s rate-cut path far from clear.”
Gold is still up about 54% this year and remains on target for its best annual performance since 1979. A scorching rally to a record above $4,380 an ounce last month has been underpinned by elevated central-bank purchases, while investors have also piled into the precious metal as a hedge against growing fiscal unease in some of the world’s biggest economies.
Gold was 1% lower at $4,042.00 an ounce as of 4:07 p.m. in New York. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was up 0.3%. Silver, platinum and palladium all fell.
–With assistance from Jack Ryan and Yvonne Yue Li.
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