Gold Rises as Dollar Declines While Traders Digest Fed's Decisions

Gold prices rose on Thursday as the dollar weakened against most major currencies, while investors absorbed the Federal Reserve's policy decisions.

Earlier government data revealed that unemployment claims remained steady at 208 thousand last week, defying analysts' expectations of a rise to 212 thousand.

The Federal Reserve announced its decision to keep interest rates unchanged at 5.25% to 5.5% for the sixth consecutive meeting.

According to the Fed's policy statement, no rate cuts are anticipated until there is sufficient confidence that inflation is steadily progressing towards 2%.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell, during his press conference on Wednesday, remarked that the Fed anticipates maintaining restrictive policies for some time to achieve the 2% inflation target.

He also stated that while the next policy move is not expected to be a rate hike, a rate cut isn't foreseen until inflation is consistently heading towards 2%.

Meanwhile, the dollar index dropped by 0.3% to 105.4 as of 19:18 GMT, with its session-high reaching 105.9 and its low at 105.3.

Gold spot prices climbed by 0.2% as of 19:19 GMT, or $4.10, to reach $2315.1 per ounce.