WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold prices were flat Tuesday after data showed housing starts rebounded in the month of March.
June gold fell $1.20, or just under 0.1%, to settle at $1,349.50/oz.
The Commerce Department said housing starts jumped by 1.9 percent to an annual rate of 1.319 million in March after tumbling by 3.3 percent to a revised 1.295 million in February.
Partly reflecting a substantial rebound in utilities output, the Federal Reserve released a report on Tuesday showing a slightly bigger than expected increase in U.S. industrial production in the month of March.
The report said industrial production climbed by 0.5 percent in March after surging up by a revised 1.0 percent in February.
Later, the IMF lifted its U.S. growth estimate for 2018 to 2.9% and its 2019 estimate to 2.7%.
Traders also paid attention to a number of Federal Reserve speakers.
Inflation will stay at or above the Fed's 2% goal for 'another couple of years,' San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams said today. The Fed will likely raise interest rates in order to keep the economy from overheating, he told reporters in Spain.
On the other hand, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans argued that the 'risks of the economy overheating 'are not particularly high.'
Another Fed official warned that college debt will hurt our economy in the long-run.
'If the ability of our younger generations to participate in the economy is adversely affected, so, overall, is our economy,' Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker said at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX