XAU/USD: Gold stays flat as traders watch Powell's speech to see what the Fed will do next

The valuable metal is ready to take in what the central banker says about rate hikes and expectations of inflation.

Wednesday, markets were more interested in Jerome Powell's speech than in the price of gold, which stayed around $1,934 per ounce. The Fed's head is going to appear before Congress, and gold investors hope to learn something new about what the central bank will do next.

Powell is about to talk to the US House Financial Affairs Committee about monetary policy, as he does every six months. At its next meeting, will the Fed decide to raise rates? Is it going to go up by 0.25 percent or by 0.5 percent? Will it continue to cut rates this year? Or keep rates higher for longer?

Market players expect to hear about all of these things and more. On the technical side of trade, the XAUUSD pair has been testing the short-term support near $1,925 per ounce. Gold has only gone up by 5.7% since the beginning of the year, which isn't as good as other large-cap investments like Bitcoin. The first cryptocurrency is up 75% for the year.