Gold prices ignore Powell's hawkish stance as prices surge to session highs Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell maintains his hawkish stance on U.S. monetary policy. Although inflation has fallen sharply from last year's 40-year highs, Powell said the central bank still has some work to do to bring inflation down to its 2% target. Wednesday, the core Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, said that in the last 12 months to October, inflation rose 3.5%. In his remarks, Powell said that the risks of under- and over-tightening are becoming more balanced and this set the gold price racing higher.
