By Christopher Alessi 

Metals prices were mixed on Thursday, with the precious complex broadly boosted by the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision not to raise interest rates further this year.

Precious Metals

Gold for April delivery rose 0.4% to $1,307.30 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold prices found support after the Fed on Wednesday left interest rates unchanged and signaled that it is unlikely to raise rates further this year. The news weighed on the U.S. dollar, in turn boosting gold. Dollar-denominated commodities like gold tend to have an inverse relationship with the greenback.

However, the WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of 16 of its peers, ticked up 0.4% on Thursday.

"Headwinds from the U.S. interest-rate cycle should fade, likely lifting the mood in the gold market and providing price support around current levels," said Carsten Menke, commodities research analyst at Julius Baer.

At the same time, gold "also pulled the other precious metals up with it -- in fact, they even rose somewhat more steeply than gold," according to analysts at Commerzbank.

Among other precious metals, silver rose 0.8% at $15.437 a troy ounce, platinum gained 0.2% at $861.10 a troy ounce and palladium fell 0.2% to $1,557.90 a troy ounce.

Base Metals

Copper prices fell as a stronger dollar outweighed signs of a supply deficit.

Copper for May delivery settled down 0.5% to $2.9060 a pound in New York, reversing gains after trading as high as $2.9690 earlier in the session.

A report from the International Copper Study Group showed that the copper supply deficit last year was at its highest level in four years. The deficit was largely the result of "world refined consumption increasing 2% and production growth constrained by smelter disruptions and temporary shutdowns for tech upgrades," said Alistair Munro at brokerage Marex Spectron.

--Stephanie Yang contributed to this article.

Write to Christopher Alessi at christopher.alessi@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 21, 2019 15:48 ET (19:48 GMT)

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