* Spot gold was up 0.1% to $1,952.29 per ounce, as of 0023 GMT, after hitting the highest level since April 2022 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures rose 1.4% at $1,969.40.
* The Fed on Wednesday scaled back to a quarter-percentage-point rate increase after a year of larger hikes. Powell warned of further monetary policy tightening but also noted the progress on disinflation, which he said is in its early stages.
* Gold tends to benefit in lower interest rate environment,
as it reduces the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding
bullion.
* The Bank of England and the European Central Bank are
expected to raise rates by 50 bps later in the day.
* India raised total taxes on silver imports 15% and on
silver dore to 14.35%, the government said in a statement on
Wednesday, in an effort to align the duty structure of the metal
with gold.
* Spot silver gained 0.5% to $24.09 per ounce,
platinum rose 0.6% to $1,009.62 and palladium was
flat at $1,669.59.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0030 Australia Building Approval Total YY Dec
1200 UK BOE Bank Rate Jan
1315 EU ECB Refinancing Rate Feb
1315 EU ECB Deposit Rate Feb
1339 US Initial Jobless Clm Weekly
1500 US Factory Orders MM Dec
0130 - BOJ Deputy Governor Masazumi Wakatabe to deliver
speech and hold a news conference in Shizuoka
1345 - European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde
speaks to reporters in Frankfurt following the Governing
Council's monetary policy meetingconference
(Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bengaluru; editing by
Uttaresh.V)
