Gold rises on weaker dollar, heads for 1st weekly gain in four

BENGALURU, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Gold prices edged higher on Friday to a one-week high as the dollar weakened on receding fears of a full-blown Sino-U.S. trade war, with the yellow metal heading for its first weekly gain in four. FUNDAMENTALS: * Spot gold inched up 0.2 percent to $1,209.38 by 0036 GMT, after touching its highest since Sept. 13 at $1,210.01. It has risen 1.3 percent so far this week. * U.S. gold futures were up 0.3 percent at $1,214.30 an ounce. * Investors are awaiting next week’s Federal Reserve meeting. The U.S. central bank is widely expected to raise benchmark interest rates and shed light on the path for future rate hikes. * All 113 economists in the Reuters poll forecast the Fed would raise rates when it meets Sept. 25-26. It is expected to follow that up with one more before the end of this year, taking the fed funds rate to 2.25-2.50 percent. * Higher rates dent demand for non-interest yielding gold and in turn boost the dollar in which it is priced. * The dollar index was hovering near a ten-week low against a basket of major currencies. * The dollar fell as a resurgence in global risk appetite curbed safe-haven demand for the greenback. * The U.S. economy will expand at a robust pace in coming quarters but slow to 2 percent by the end of 2019, according to forecasters polled by Reuters who unanimously said the escalating trade war with China was bad economic policy. * Some Asian economies running large external surpluses, including Thailand and South Korea, might be forced to tighten monetary policy soon as high household debt poses a bigger financial risk than the U.S. Federal Reserve’s steady pace of rate hikes. * Palladium touched its highest since April 19 at $1,054 per ounce on Thursday. It was last down 0.2 percent at $1,047.49. * Platinum hit its highest since Aug. 10 at $835.20 on Thursday. It was steady at $832.74 on Friday. * Russia’s gold reserves stood at 64.3 million troy ounces as of the start of September, the central bank said on Thursday. * Switzerland’s gold trade boomed in August, with imports hitting their highest level since January 2017 and exports the highest since June last year, data from the Swiss customs bureau showed. * Fintech company Tradewind Markets said on Thursday it had hired Steve Lowe, former head of European operations at Bank of Nova Scotia’s metals business, to help it expand in Europe.