Gold Rebounds as Traders Weigh Omicron Against Hawkish Powell
- Fed chair stresses vigilance on inflation, policy to adapt
- Countries ready tighter curbs to check virus variant’s spread
Gold rebounded from a three-week low as traders weighed the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant against comments by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on the need to curb inflation.
Researchers worldwide are racing to understand the full impact of the strain, first identified in South Africa and detected in countries from the U.K. to Brazil. It has prompted a raft of travel restrictions to curtail its spread, and sparked concerns about whether the strain could evade the protection of vaccines and fuel new surges in infections. Powell reinforced his message that the U.S. central bank would keep inflation in check and said for the second time in two days that officials should consider speeding up how quickly they withdraw policy support.