Silver hits record high of $61.46/oz
Silver crossed $60/oz for the first time on Tuesday
White House adviser Hassett says 'plenty of room' to cut rates
Updates with comments for Asia mid-session trade
By Ishaan Arora
Dec 10 (Reuters) - Gold steadied on Wednesday, as investors prepared to parse Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's guidance on a day when the bank is widely expected to deliver an interest rate cut, while silver continued its record-breaking run above $60 an ounce.
Spot gold XAU= was flat at $4,210.79 per ounce, as of 0606 GMT. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 for February delivery rose 0.1% to $4,238.90 per ounce.
Spot silver XAG= was up 1% at $61.30/oz after hitting an all-time high of $61.46 earlier in the session. It built on its Tuesday's break above the $60/oz threshold.
Silver is now catching up with gold in terms of value. In October XAU-XAG, it took 82 ounces of silver to buy one ounce of gold. Today, that is close to 69, said Jigar Trivedi, senior research analyst at Reliance Securities.
"Silver is in demand considering the fundamentals as well," said Trivedi, referring to the white metal's use in industries.
Sectors like solar energy, electric vehicles and their infrastructure, and data centers and artificial intelligence will drive industrial demand higher through 2030, the Silver Institute industry association said in a research report on Tuesday.
Maria Smirnova, chief investment officer at Sprott Asset Management, said the metal received additional support from exchange-traded fund inflows and the U.S. move to designate it a critical mineral earlier in the year.
Global silver inventories continue to thin and expectations of Fed rate cuts have supported demand.
Meanwhile, the two-day Fed meeting concludes with a decision at 1900 GMT, followed by Powell's 1930 GMT press conference. Investors see about an 89% chance of a 25-basis-point cut. FEDWATCH
"What we're seeing on spot gold is not much change, it's still range-bound, and people are just looking at the Fed interest rates tonight, and whether there'll be further news (on the monetary policy path)," GoldSilver Central MD Brian Lan said.
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Tuesday there is "plenty of room" for more cuts but rising inflation could shift that outlook.
Lower interest rates tend to favour non-yielding assets such as gold.
Elsewhere, platinum XPT= lost 1.3% to $1,667.89, while palladium XPD= fell 0.6% to $1,497.31.
(Reporting by Ishaan Arora, Anmol Choubey and Sherin Elizabeth Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Harikrishnan Nair)
((Ishaan.Arora@thomsonreuters.com;))
