The price of gold surged as investors bet on a rate cut by the Federal Reserve, despite progress in government shutdown negotiations.

The price of gold jumped in early trading, driven by market expectations of further interest rate cuts in December, as previous data from the U.S. showed a sharp increase in job layoffs in October and weakened consumer confidence. New York gold futures rose 2% to $4,092.20 per ounce, reaching the highest level in over two weeks, while spot gold also rose 0.6% to $4,001.28 per ounce. Mitsubishi UFJ analyst Soojin Kim said, "Signs of weakness in the U.S. economy have outweighed progress in negotiations to end the record-long government shutdown." The FedWatch tool shows that market participants currently believe there is a 65% chance of an interest rate cut in December. Meanwhile, silver futures surged 3.7% to $49.92 per ounce, and platinum rose 3.2% to $1,598.80 per ounce.