The gold price has continued to climb today, brushing off yesterday’s interest rate hike from the US Federal Reserve and according to some analysts the precious metal may be setting itself up for a bigger rally.

For over a month now gold has been stuck in a tight trading range bogged down by the US dollar and fears over just how many interest rate hikes the Fed will deliver this year.

And once again it followed a familiar pattern leading up to the rate decision which has made for some good trading conditions for short term sellers.

“Gold has a habit of falling prior to Fed interest rate announcements and rising soon after,” said Mark O’Byrne, research director at GoldCore in Dublin.

There was a real danger for Gold yesterday which was not the actual rate decision, but the monetary statement that followed which many thought would be hawkish and point to as many as 3 more rate hikes this year from the Fed.

This would have left gold out in the cold as it is not an interest bearing investment and is only popular with investors through capital gains and as a safe haven

In their following statement the Fed were careful not to spook the market and noted that rate hikes were still dependent on solid economic data and gold benefited as a result and more gains are now expected.

“Now that the Fed and the ECB announcements are out of the way and with no real surprises, participants may look at the positive fundamentals again,” which include geopolitical risks, he said. “This should support gold and indeed lead to price gains.”