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 prices for Asia session close
By Ishaan Arora
Dec 10 (Reuters) - Gold edged lower 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 down 0.1% at $4,205.4 per ounce, as of 0712 GMT. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 for February delivery fell 0.1% to $4,233.30 per ounce.
Spot silver XAG= was up 1.1% at $61.34/oz after hitting an all-time high of $61.61 earlier in the session. It built on its Tuesday break above the $60/oz threshold .
Silver is now catching up with gold in terms of value, thanks to its wide use in industry amid a supply crunch as demand for the precious metal surged this year.
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 based in Mumbai.
"Silver is in demand considering the fundamentals as well," said Trivedi.
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
On a longer-term view, gold remains in an upward trajectory and maintains a bullish bias, but in the near term, prices are range-bound as investors await clarity on the Fed’s next steps and future policy direction, GoldSilver Central MD Brian Lan said.
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett, the front-runner to be the Fed's next chair, 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 $1,667.71, while palladium XPD= fell 1% to $1,492.25.
(Reporting by Ishaan Arora, Anmol Choubey and Sherin Elizabeth Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Harikrishnan Nair)
((Ishaan.Arora@thomsonreuters.com;))
