Plenty of room for gold investing to increase analyst
Silver down 1

May 2 Reuters Gold prices stuck to a relatively narrow range on Tuesday as investors braced for hints on future interest rates from the U.S. Federal Reserve39;s policy meeting.

Spot gold was little changed at 1,981.79 per ounce by 0853 GMT, while U.S. gold futures were down 0.1 to 1,989.80.

The Federal Open Market Committee on Tuesday starts a twoday meeting, during which it is widely expected to raise rates by 25 basis points.

However, if the Fed39;s statement adopts a cautious stance, this could weaken the dollar ultimately boosting gold prices, said Lukman Otunuga, senior research analyst at FXTM.

Although gold is considered a hedge against economic uncertainties, rising rates hurt demand for the zeroyielding asset.

Gold clocked a more than 1 gain in April amid the U.S. banking crisis.

It may also be wise to watch out for the European Central Bank meeting which is expected to conclude with a 25bp rate hike. Any unexpected moves by the central bank may influence the euro, which in turn could impact the dollar trickling down to gold, Otunuga added.

A weaker dollar makes gold cheaper for holders of other currencies.

The ECB meeting is on Thursday.

Gold briefly rose above 2,000 on Monday after regulators seized and sold First Republic Bank39;s assets to JPMorgan Chase Co, in a deal to resolve the largest U.S. bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis.

BullionVault director of research…