Gold Closes Higher For Third Consecutive Session

(RTTNews) - The price of gold advanced during trading on Tuesday, closing higher for the third consecutive session amid a decrease in the value of the U.S. dollar.

Gold for April delivery climbed $15.70 to $2,039.80 an ounce after rising $9.20 to $2,024.10 an ounce last Friday.

The continued increase by the price of gold came as the U.S. dollar index dipped 0.25 points or 0.2 percent to 104.04.

Meanwhile, traders were also looking ahead to the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting on Wednesday.

"The minutes of the Federal Reserve's January Federal Open Market Committee meeting may clarify how much more 'good data' the Fed's policymakers want to see before starting to reduce interest rates," said Bill Adams, Chief Economist for Comerica Bank.

He added, "Chair Powell said at the press conference following the January decision that he saw a March cut as unlikely, but was uncharacteristically vague about exactly what the Fed's preconditions for cuts are; this suggests FOMC members still disagree about the issue."

Ahead of the release of the minutes, CME Group's FedWatch is currently indicating just an 8.5 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point in March.