Gold climbs, supported by growth, inflation concerns

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: An ingot of 99.99 percent pure gold is cast at the Krastsvetmet non-ferrous metals plant in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia March 10, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Manzyuk

By Eileen Soreng

(Reuters) - Gold prices climbed on Tuesday as investors sought the safe-haven asset amid fears over global growth and soaring inflation, though bets of aggressive U.S. interest rate hikes kept bullion pinned near four-week lows hit in the previous session.

Spot gold rose 0.3% to $1,903.70 per ounce by 0953 GMT. Prices touched $1,890.20 on Monday - its lowest since March 29.

U.S. gold futures gained 0.5% to $1,904.40 per ounce.

"Gold is expected to struggle to hang on to gains, as long as concerns over the Fed's increasingly aggressive battle against inflation outweigh the rising fears over a potential recession," Han Tan, chief market analyst at Exinity, said.

"If this psychologically important support level (of $1,900) gives way, that could invite gold bears to test $1,875 as support."

While the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to raise rates by half a percentage point at each of its next two meetings, markets have also been worrying that an aggressive pace of tightening could derail the global economic recovery.

Markets also fretted over the economic fallout from China's COVID-19 lockdowns.

Rival safe haven, the dollar advanced to a new two-year high, making greenback-priced gold more expensive for this holding other currencies and capping further gains in the bullion. [USD/]

Meanwhile, auto-catalyst metal palladium rose 1% to $2,166.26 per ounce, a day after concerns over reduced demand due to COVID lockdowns in China dragged it down as much as 12.9%.

"There's still a quite large reluctance from many clients to engage with Russian companies going forward, so we possibly could see that reduction in production come later," said WisdomTree analyst Nitesh Shah.

"This year as semiconductor availability improves, we should see car demand rising... Yesterday's fall should be a very good bargain hunting opportunity."

Nornickel, the world's largest palladium producer, said on Monday its first-quarter palladium production fell year-on-year, but kept its previous output forecast for 2022 unchanged.

Spot silver gained 0.6% to $23.74 per ounce and platinum rose 0.2% to $922.69.